DonoSlane Excursions - For the Life of a Friend
by csThor
Summary: There's an old Corellian saying: 'Good friends are rare and should be cherished.' But just how far does friendship go when one of them behaves in a way that reminds Myn of what he went through and when that hard-headed behavior gets him into some very serious trouble? (after due consideration re-rated T)
1. Chapter 1

_**DonoSlane Excursions – For the life of a friend**_

 **Dramatis Personae:  
**  
Kirney Slane-Donos (human female from Coruscant)  
Myn Donos (human male from Corellia)  
Selan Donos (human male from Corellia - Myn's father – OC)  
Jaleela Donos (human female from Corellia - Myn's mother – OC)  
Jarrath Lund (human male from Corellia - OC)  
Denna Lerimore (human female from Corellia – OC)  
Tonin (R2-series astromech)  
Kolot (modified Ewok male from Endor)

 **Timeframe:** ~ 13.5 ABY AU

 **Author's note:** I can't believe it's been more than four years since I typed the first scene of this, but the date in the file properties doesn't lie. So much has happened in these years - not least the "Disneyfication" of Star Wars. As such I've gotta warn you - this belongs to the "Legends" Extended Universe and has nothing to do with the new movie. Just saying …  
One more thing: Aaron Allston's last Star Wars book (Mercy Kill) contained pieces that drove me to reinvent a certain part of the story to match what that books said about the old Wraiths' knowledge of Kirney. They were too casual, too unsurprised to her appearance not to have known about her for a long time.I know this invalidates the Epilogue of "Reevaluation", but that is okay with me.

* * *

 _ **Hermes**_ **-Class Courier** _ **Stellar Wayfarer**_ **  
08:41 a.m. Corellian Standard Time – inbound to Corellia**

Myn was slouching in the pilot's chair, feet propped up on a secondary computer console and allowed his thoughts to roam freely. The state he was in was approaching something like meditation, a slice of his consciousness alert and focused on the ship but the majority was left free to drift.  
It was a habit he'd picked up when he'd been flying snubfighters for the New Republic. Every pilot handeled the monotony of hyperspace differently – most were quick to catch up on lost sleep, others read, listened to music, played games on their datapad or conversed with their astromech, unless they were flying A- or B-Wings which had no provision to carry an astromech. Sleeping was most common since one of the earliest things you learned once out of the Academy was to conserve your strength for the moment you needed it, but on long hyperspace flights you sometimes needed something else to do and so he'd begun to let his thoughts drift. Just like now …

He let out a small sigh of contentment as his mind was turning to his family. This had been the last run he'd go on for a while and he was looking forward to the quiet and peace very much. His father's sixtieth lifeday was approaching and the family had decided to take a few weeks off their usually busy schedules to celebrate it accordingly. He gave a low chuckle. _Strike that quiet and peace_ , he told himself quietly, thinking of his father's old friends from the military. They may have become older but were no less rowdy than in their younger years. _It's going to be a party with a very capital P.  
_ He let his head drop back against the padded headrest of his chair and smiled. He imagined the table full of exquisite and tasty foods: his aunt's extra-zesty spiceloaf, his mother's avian casserole, grilled Bantha steaks with that awesome Whyren's-and-cream sauce his cousin's wife made … A smirk appeared on his face as he imagined Kolot's reaction to that image. He didn't know anything about the Ewoks' religious beliefs, or if he even had any, but he guessed for the little furry glutton that would feel like having gone straight to heaven.

A soft chime jerked him out of his hedonistic little fantasy and he let out a sigh of annoyance. He brought down his feet on the floor and swiveled the chair back to its standard position. A light was flashing and he hit a switch to bring up his navigation computer. He nodded to himself. That chime had been the proximity alert and the ship was a minute away from reverting to normal space again, a slight smile drifting on his lips as he made a few internal calculations.

 _Twenty minutes to touchdown, a few minutes for the post-flight checks and another hour for the scans … I should be home in two hours._

Another chime jolted him out of his thoughts again. He strapped himself in and flicked the switch of the intercom. "We're approaching Corellia. Thirty seconds to reversion from hyperspace, Doctor. Please strap yourself in, Sir."

" _Yes, yes …_ " came the somewhat absent-minded answer and he watched on the holoscreen as his passenger put down the datapad he'd been tapping on and secured his own crash-webbing. The man flashed a glance at his wrist chrono and looked up to the holocam. " _Could you do me a big favor, Captain, and arrange for an airspeeder taxi to wait for me upon arrival? I have an appointment with the Head of the Corellian Medical Institue and I'm running out of time._ "

"Certainly, Sir," Myn replied evenly. "Reversion to real space in five … four … three … two … one … Mark." He pulled back the lever of the hyperdrive and the chaotic swirl of light collapsed into the familiar star constellations of his home planet. "We'll be landing in twenty minutes. I have to ask you to remain belted until touchdown."

He watched the Doctor's holo nod absently, once again preoccupied with whatever document he was reading.

The com cackled to life as he swung the ship's nose towards the blue ball of Corellia. " _Stellar Wayfarer_ ," a woman's voice came out of the speaker system, " _we have you on our scopes. Please state your business._ "

"This is _Stellar Wayfarer_ of DonoSlane Excursions, Control. Captain Donos speaking. Requesting permission to land on Coronet Central with one passenger and no freight."

" _Ah, I'm afraid that's a negative for Coronet Central, Wayfarer_ ," the female controller answered and Myn could detect a touch of exasperation in her tone. " _Central is currently closed to all traffic due to an emergency situation. One of these tarmac hogs bumped his tanker into one of the fuel distributors and blew a valve. The fire department is busy trying to mop up several hundred cubic meters of trimoseratate without setting it on fire._ "

"Marvelous, Control," Myn groaned. "I've got a passenger who has an appointment at the Medical Institute and is a bit in a hurry. Any place where I can put down instead?"

There was a momentary silence as the controller was checking landing slots and free approach corridors into Corellia's airspace. " _You could put down on Behareh_ ," she suggested.

He frowned. "I don't have landing rights there. Can't afford to buy them now, either."

" _Don't worry_ ," the woman soothed. " _The owner consortium has agreed to cooperate and let priority flights land without the usual landing fees. I've just put your transponder on the priority list and transmitted the approach vector._ "

Myn threw a bemused and somewhat disbelieving stare at the com unit. _A controller who isn't a stickler for regulations_ , he thought. _Who'd have guessed?_

"Thanks a lot, Control."

" _Don't let it get to your head, flyboy_ ," the woman sent back, a sudden edge creeping into her voice. " _That passenger of yours seems to be awfully important. The Chief Executive of the Medical Institute commed our boss and soon after we were instructed to watch for your arrival and assign you a high priority for a landing slot._ "

Donos allowed himself a sarcastic smile. "And there I thought Space Control had gotten a sudden bout of customer focus," he joked.

A decidely un-ladylike snort came out of the com. " _Sure. Anything else I can do for you, Wayfarer?_ "

"In fact there's something. Could you arrange for a fast speeder taxi to wait at the spaceport or could you put me through to a taxi dispatcher? Behareh is a bit far from the Institute to walk."

" _I'll see to it,_ " the controller promised.

"Thanks, Control. _Wayfarer_ out."

Myn deactivated the com and brought up the entry vector he'd been given. A holographic projection appeared on his heads-up-display and he swung the courier around and approached the planet. When his sensors registered the ship's entry into the outer edge of Corellia's atmosphere he throttled back and pulled the nose up a hair, reducing the angle of entry. Still the friction built up quickly and so did the temperatures. The shields kept the heat away from the fuselage but they began to glow like a sun going supernova, temporarily turning the ship into the visual equivalent of a meteoroid burning its fiery way into the atmosphere. The _Wayfarer_ glowed for less than ten seconds, then the denser atmosphere at lower altitudes slowed and cooled the ship and the eerie glow disappeared.

As soon as the flames died away and he could see again the grey blob of Coronet City was looming ahead. Even though he was still some thirty klicks above the surface he could easily make out the large duracrete circle that was Coronet Central to the north and also the smaller tarmac of Behareh spaceport dead ahead. Myn throttled back to just over twenty percent thrust and let gravity pull the _Wayfarer_ towards its destination.  
When he got within ten klicks of Behareh a green rectangle appeared in his holographic display, enveloping a small stretch of tarmac in the north-western quadrant of the spaceport, and he added more thrust and shunted power to his repulsorlifts but left them on standby. Upon closing further he could make out a primitive light sign on the side of a massive hangar which directed him to a specific location. Throttling back almost to zero he kicked in the repulsorlifts and extended the landing gear. The ship touched down with a gentle jolt, the shrill whine of the engine dying away as Myn worked his way through the short power-down checklist.

Upon leaving the cockpit he found his passenger waiting near the access to the small passenger area. Myn pulled a lever and the big access hatch opened with the hiss of straining hydraulics, then he hit another switch and the gangway extended towards the ground. Myn moved ahead to check if the gangway was correctly extended, then looked around and was relieved to see the approaching figure of a Corellian customs officer and the waiting airspeeder taxi in the background.

"Welcome to Corellia," he said to his passenger who had appeared at the top of the gangway. Gesturing at the customs officer and the taxi he added, "Have your documents ready for inspection, Sir."

"Thanks for the speedy service, Captain," the doctor said with a smile and extended his hand, a credcard between his fingers. "The previously agreed-upon twenty-five hundred New Republic credits."

Myn pocketed the card before shaking his passenger's hand. "Enjoy your stay on Corellia, Doctor. Thanks for your patronage."

As the scientist turned to leave Myn began a quick inspection of the ship's hull to check for any damage. Atmospheric entry was strenous for a ship, even with the shield system, and a missed microfissure could produce some very ugly results next time he went up into the void of space. As he rounded the drive nozzles the hustle and bustle in front of the next hangar over caught his attention. A group of workers were busy tearing down a company sign from the hangar front while several more, supported by maintenance droids, were repainting a _Lambda_ -Class shuttle and two _Gymsnor-3_ class freighters. Myn frowned. That red-blue sigil on the shuttle's fin … Wasn't that the company logo of Solant Transports? So why were the techs overpainting the entire fin with that green and white design? He knew he'd seen that one before but he couldn't place it at the moment.

"They were bought up," a voice from behind spoke up as if reading his thoughts.

Donos cast a glance at the customs officer who had appeared beside him. And then his mind managed to figure out where the green-white logo came from. "By Vhinntar Shipping?"

"Yep." The disdain in the officer's voice was mirrored on his face. "Scuttlebutt has it that they browbeat the old Lenen Solant into selling. Cavalier son of a Sith, this Josar Vhinntar." He spat on the tarmac, a telling sign of his opinion of the neighboring company's new owner.

Myn held out his ID card for scanning. This was routine for him now and no longer made him nervous. "Isn't that the third or fourth company Vhinntar has bought out?"

The officer ran Myn's ID card through the scanner, handed it back and shrugged. "Don't know. I don't have time to watch the scene, so to speak, but I know this green-white is not going to be the favourite paintjob of mine." He tossed Myn a sloppy salute and turned to leave. "The scanning crew has you on their list. Once they're through you're free to go."

"Thanks." Myn cast one last glance at the workers over at Vhinntar's new acquisition, shook off his unease and continued the inspection of his ship.


	2. Chapter 2

The trip home took him far longer than usual. Behareh was on the other side of Coronet City and there was no direct MagLev connection between it and his home district Tekahel. So he'd been forced to switch trains three times – from Behareh to Mongutah Station, from Mongutah to Coronet Sportsdome, from Sportsdome to CorSec Plaza and from there to Tekahel East – and decided that he greatly prefered landing on Central. At least the Behareh owners had agreed to let him move the Ship another day, without having to pay the obligatory docking fee, since he felt absolutely no inclination to do that today. Tomorrow he'd have his father drive him to Behareh, then he would make the short hop over to Central and take the train to Tekahel from there.

His mood took a rather drastic downturn as a torrential rain began to come down just as his train was entering Tekahel East station. It wasn't far from the station to his childhood home, a little less than a klick, but with water pouring down at a rate rivalling a small waterfall he was soaked thoroughly just after a few minutes of walking. As he pushed open the front door and stepped into the small entrance area his mother was already waiting for him with a large towel and a reproachful glare.

"Sithspit, Myn," she swore as she enveloped him with the fluffy blue cloth and began to towel him dry. "Why didn't you call ahead? Your father would have picked you up with the speeder."

"I'm okay, Mom," he answered and tried to still her hands' movements. "Look, it's only water. It won't kill me."

Jaleela's glare intensified and her son winced. "It's not summer anymore and you're freezing," she rebuked sharply, gesturing as he was beginning to shiver. "Off to the fresher with you and take a hot shower. I'll get you some dry clothes."

Rolling his eyes he pulled the towel tight around his shoulders and shuffled into the refresher.

Twenty minutes later, freshly showered and dressed in loose comfortable pants and a sweatshirt, he entered the kitchen and found his parents sitting at the table.

"Took your time," his father remarked casually but the glint in his eyes gave the teasing away.

Myn shrugged nonchalantly. "A real shower is always nice."

Jaleela elbowed her husband lightly and began to dish out stew from a pot. "When's Kirney due?"

"Sometime tomorrow," her son responded and held up his own plate. He inhaled the spicy fragrance of the tuber stew and gave an appreciative sigh. "You can't imagine how much I'm looking forward to this downtime."

"Oh, I can imagine," his father said and held up his own plate to receive a scoop of stew. "The two of you have been bouncing across the galaxy like balls in a repulsor flipper of late."

"Work begets more work," his son cited an old Corellian proverb in return.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean you should let work dictate your life," his mother reminded him gently. "If you hadn't noticed, Myn – you look exhausted. And Kirney is not any better."

Myn sighed. "I know I'm tired. But it's because we wanted to take this break that we accepted orders at the rate you've seen of late. It's not like docking fees and taxes take a timeout as well."

"True," Jaleela agreed as she poured a scoop of stew on her own plate. "But even without the hectic of the last few weeks you two have spent very little time together. You're seeing her … What? Ten or twelve days a month? When are you going to live your life?"

Myn hesitated, his spoon hovering midway between plate and mouth, and gave his parents a hard look. "If this is another _'When are you going to have kids of your own?'_ grilling, then …"

His father held up a hand to stall the tirade before it began. "It isn't. We're just worried that all you seem to do is eat, sleep and work … Where's the difference between that and what you did as a teenager?"

Myn put down the spoon and sighed. "Look, I know this is not exactly the life we envisioned. But, unfortunately, it is as it is and not as we want it to be. This isn't the annual _Midwinter Wish-Athlon_. We do have a business to run, we need to earn credits and at the moment we're lucky to be reasonably successful but we aren't yet at the point where we can hire pilots and sit back to act as managers or dispatchers. Then, and only then, we're going to have a measure of normalcy in our life and can think about settling down for real."

Selan tilted his head and gave his son a penetrating look. "I know what you're thinking, Myn. I've been there, you know. Remember our talk back when you came to see Kirney?"

"I do," Myn affirmed. "And you know we want kids, more than one, but we can't give them the home we want to give to them. Not yet. We want to be there for our children, we want to see them grow up and not pop in and out of their lifes every few days because we've got to fly to the other side of the galaxy."

"We understand," his mother soothed. "But how long can you keep up the pace of work? Another year? Two? Three? Or ten?" She shook her head. "If you postpone living until some day far off in the future, when all your conditions are being met, you may wake up old and grey and realize that none of your grandiose plans have worked."

Myn gave a sigh of exasperation. "Have you been having words with Wes Janson?"

His father raised an eyebrow. "Since we have never met the man we haven't. But if he's said the same things he must be a wise man."

His son chuckled. "It's apparent you've never met that perpetual nine-year-old."

"He's a wise nine-year-old then," Jaleela retorted with a wicked smile. That drew a snort.

"We're not saying you should start a family now," Selan said. "But you may want to consider that you won't be able to work at the pace you're working at now. So, maybe, you and that spitfire of a wife of yours should throttle back a bit and remember that there's more to life than credits and the satisfaction of a thriving company." He leaned across the table and tapped his son's forehead with his index finger. "Use that brain of yours. Consider alternative business strategies. Think of options within the confines of your business plans and portfolio. Be flexible."

Myn narrowed his eyes and scrutinized his father's face. "You've either spent considerable time preparing for this discussion or you're the most eloquent motivational coach this side of Raxus Prime," he deadpanned. "Tell me, Dad, did you have to look up this speech somewhere or did you make it up on the fly?"

Selan gave a snort. " _Instructions for Infantry Platoon and Company Commanders_ ," he shot back. "The tenets of a good infantry officer, just translated into business terms. I'm astonished you haven't recognized it."

Myn groaned and buried his face in his hands. "Okay, okay. You've made your point. Can we eat now?" He began eating, determined to put the lid on _that_ discussion.

"Sure," his father said and picked up his own spoon as well. "So what's on the agenda for tomorrow?"

"Um," his son mumbled with the spoon between his teeth. He swallowed, reddening slightly as his mother cast a disapproving frown in his direction, and put down the cutlery again. "Sorry. Could you give me a ride to Behareh spaceport tomorrow? I need to move the _Wayfarer_ to Central or it'll cost."

"Behareh?" Jaleela looked at him curiously as she handed out pieces of bread to the two men. "What are you doing there?"

"Central was closed," her son explained, began tearing small pieces off the slice of bread and dumped them into his stew. "Some tanker bumped into a fuel distribution point, blew a valve and spilled several hundred cubic meters of trimoseratate, a highly flammable starship fuel. My passenger was important so Space Control gave me a landing slot on Behareh."

"Oh." Selan looked mildly interested. "Someone we know?"

"No." Myn shook his head. "He was a doctor, a scientist. Works in an area that ends with -ology. I forgot the term just as soon as I'd heard it."

"Nice to see that the good old _Vitamin C_ is still working like it used to," his father scoffed.

"It certainly beats loitering in orbit for Sith knows how long all the while listening to the passenger getting more and more cranky," Myn answered dryly.

Selan acceded to the notion with an equally dry, "Point taken."

They finished eating in comfortable silence.


	3. Chapter 3

Leaning against a hydraulic cylinder of the main ramp Kirney watched as two men of the scanning team stowed their gear back in the aft hold of the maintenance skimmer.

"Everything checks out, Captain" the foreman said with a smile and held out a datapad. "As usual."

"Of course it does," she returned wryly and pressed her thumb on the small reader pad. The device emitted a quick warble as it logged the work order as fulfilled.

"I know how you feel," the foreman returned and his smile morphed into something akin to ruefulness. "But I shouldn't complain too much as it keeps me in work." He nodded at the small parcel Kirney had placed on the tarmac. "Anything you ought to pay duty on?" he joked.

"Nah," she disagreed with negligent wave of a hand. "Unless, of course, Corellia has introduced tariffs on candy."

The man arched an eyebrow. "Candy? Never took you for the overly sweet type."

"It's for my father-in-law," Kirney explained. "Comkin Five caramel candy, the _Premium Selection Maxi Box_. His lifeday is approaching and he's the one with the sweet tooth."

He chuckled and held out his hand. "Well, we're off. Next ship's waiting."

Kirney shook it. "Until the next time."

The foreman left and Kirney cast a glance at her wrist chrono. Her calculations, however, were interrupted by another voice speaking up from behind her.

"You really do know half of the spaceport staff, don't you?"

She turned around and found her smirking husband leaning against the hydraulic cylinder on the other side of the main ramp. Mimicking his pose she crossed her arms in front of her chest and arched an eyebrow.

"So what if I do? Could be useful one day."

He let out a chuckle and moved forward to take her in his arms. They kissed, then he leaned his forehead against hers and both whispered in unison, "I missed you," thusly completing the _Welcome-home-ritual_ they'd worked out over the years.

Kirney put her head against his shoulder and let out a protracted sigh. "I'm _so_ much looking forward to taking a break. I can't believe it really happens."

Myn chuckled. "Yeah, me too." His face took on a rueful expression. "Although I'm afraid we're in for a few more _'When will you have kids of your own?'_ interrogations."

Kirney extricated herself from his embrace with a groan and rolled her eyes. "Your parents are persistant, aren't they? I give them eight points for their sheer tenacity."

An unusually loud burp from the top of the ramp drew their attention to the Ewok and the red-white astromech who had appeared from the depths of the ship. Kirney glowered at her furry co-pilot and declared imperiously, "That's the last time I ever let you eat that succotash, Kolot. From now on no more beans of any kind for you."

The Ewok narrowed his eyes and flashed her a rude gesture. "Kirney not the one with a plasma storm in the stomach." He suddenly clutched his stomach and grimaced.

"No, I'm just the one who had to share quarters with you," she shot back with exasperation colouring her voice. "I had to vent the aircon twice a day, not to mention bearing the multitude of disgusting noises you made."

Her husband cracked a smile. "And there I thought Kolot had a duracrete-coated digestive system and could eat anything."

Kolot glared back and muttered, "Nasty."

Tonin focused his optical receptor on the Ewok and trilled something that sounded suspiciously like a _'I told you so'_. That earned him a resounding whack on his rounded top and a string of Huttese curses from his furry friend.

"Knock off the gloating, Tonin," Kirney ordered and fixed her astromech with a stern glare. "First order of the day: We find a pharmacy store and get Kolot something to calm his innards."

The Ewok shot her a grateful look which turned into another pained grimace as a new spasm hit. "Better hurry," he ground out between clenched teeth, trying to hold back another burp. It was to no avail. A moment later another obnoxiously loud digestive noise escaped his mouth.

Kirney sighed, dug a credcard out of her pocket and held it out to Tonin. "Go with Kolot and find a pharmacy. We'll wait for you at the tapcaf near the exit to parking deck Northwest Six."

The astromech took the card with his manipulator arm, hooted an affirmation and twisted around to roll off towards the spaceport's central building. Kolot darted a dejected glance at the two humans and hurried after his mechanical friend.

Once the two were out of earshot Myn gave his wife a sympathetic glance and said, "He's really caught it this time, hasn't he?"

Kirney winced. "Yeah and the last three days weren't pretty. I didn't feel that well, either, puked my guts out the first day but I got better quickly. He didn't."

Myn's face darkened. "You were ill, too?"

"I ate at the same tapcaf," she muttered defensively. "Just nausea and a little bit of wobbliness in the morning. I guess the food was a little bit beyond the point of still being edible."

Putting his arm around his wife's shoulder he gave her a small squeeze. "Come on. Let's secure the ship and get to that tapcaf. I guess a stiff drink and some decent food will sort out your intestine in no time."

He saw her lips moving but her answer was swallowed by the sudden shrill noise of repulsorlifts revving up behind and slightly above them. They turned around and watched the scruffy _Lambda_ -class shuttle as it approached its intended landing spot just a few dozen meters to their right. The landing struts emerged from the fuselage as the wings moved upwards to their landing configuration, the forward movement ceased and the ship lowered gently on the air cushion thrown up by the repulsorlifts.

"That's Jarrath's ship," Myn said loudly into his wife's ear when he spotted the weather-beaten company writing and sigil at the top of the dorsal fin.

Kirney nodded before bending back to shout in his ear. "Haven't seen him in a while."

Myn nodded absent-mindedly. Come to think of it he hadn't seen their friend for a few weeks, either. _Strange_ , he told himself quietly. Jarrath was an easy-going and friendly character, social and mildly extroverted, but decidedly not the type to suddenly turn into a recluse.

There was a gentle _thunk_ when the shuttle settled down on the tarmac. Kirney took her husband's hand and said, once the repulsorlift's whine had abated, "Let's go say hello."

They had to wait for several minutes at the edge of the _security zone_ , a forty-meter circle marked with a broad red line, for the immigration procedures to be completed. They watched the customs and immigration officer move up the main ramp into the ship and reemerge just a minute later. Then he strode purposefully towards the waiting speeder which would take him to the next ship. When Jarrath appeared at the top of the boarding ramp both Myn and Kirney gasped at the sight.

Their friend had always been tall and lanky, not to say scraggy although that wasn't quite wrong either, but now he was looking almost _skeletal._ His face was haggard, his cheeks cavernous, the cheekbones unnaturally prominent and his eyes were sunken deep into their sockets. When he caught sight of his friends he flashed them a tired grin and moved to greet them.

"Sithspit, Jar," Kirney gasped as she moved to embrace him, "What happened? You look like hell!"

The Corellian gave a wheezing chuckle. "Always diplomatic," he joked and shook hands with Myn.

"You're more bones than flesh," Myn remarked with shock evident in his voice. "You haven't forgotten to eat, have you?"

That drew a snort. "Hardly. Had an incredible stretch of bad luck," Jarrath admitted and rubbed his eyes. "Five weeks ago I took a job to deliver a bunch of spare parts and repair tools to an isolated mining outpost in the Outer Rim. Five hours into my last hyperspace leg the hyperdrive winked out and I couldn't fix it. Took me a week on sublight to reach my destination."

Kirney cringed at the thought. "How much fuel did you have left?"

"A little less than two percent."

" _Ouch!_ "

"Yeah." Jarrath rubbed his cheek wearily. "The hyperdrive was a total loss. And to make matters worse that outpost was so isolated that delivery of a new one took almost four weeks. In the meantime I had to scant with my hard cash. Couldn't afford to buy more than the absolute minimum in ration bars."

Donos looked at him with a puzzled frown. "Why didn't you access your account?"

Jarrath gave another snort. "Would you believe there was no way to? The miners only dealt with hard cash because they were paid in cash. The local vendors, all of which were controlled by Shenio Mining by the way, wouldn't accept a debit card, either." He grinned sarcastically. "And given their prices, steep ain't half of it for the sodders are milking the miners wherever they can, I had to make do with two ration bars a day. And so here I am, the glorious image you see before your eyes."

Kirney shot him a glare. "Why didn't you call? We could have helped."

Jarrath shook his head. "You have a business of your own. I didn't want to bother you."

Myn gave a disbelieving snort. "Instead you nearly starve yourself to death. You are our friend, Jar. We would have _taken_ the time to help. That's what friends are for, after all."

"Look," the Corellian returned dropping the false cheer he'd presented them before and the tone of his voice made it clear that he wasn't in a joking mood, "I appreciate the offer, but my business is just that … my business. No offense meant." He gave a sigh that betrayed infinite weariness.

"Of all the thick-headed …" Kirney muttered but was stopped by Jarrath's glare. "Okay, okay … It's your life. You're taking a break to recharge your batteries, aren't you?"

He shook his head. "I'd like to, but I've had no income for nearly five weeks. Gotta earn money, you know."

Kirney opened her mouth to disagree but Myn shook his head warningly and she rolled her eyes. "We're going to a tapcaf for lunch. You want to come along?"

Jarrath heaved another sigh. "I'd love to, but I've got to stay with the ship until the scanning crew is through. Force knows when this is going to be."

"Take care of yourself," Kirney said and embraced her friend again. Then a thought struck her. "By the way … You know we're taking a few weeks off?"

"Yes, I know." He wreathed his face into a wry expression. "Lucky bastards."

"Should we, perhaps, forward any interested customers to you?" she suggested hesitantly. She wasn't sure how the hard-headed Corellian would take that suggestion.

Jarrath surprised her yet again when he relaxed and a grateful smile appeared on his face. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

"See you around." Myn tipped him a sloppy salute, put his arm around his wife and steered her towards the central building complex.

Jarrath watched them for a moment before he turned around and headed back into the ship.


	4. Chapter 4

The next few days brought a strange mixture of idleness and furious activity. Mornings were generally slow, they started late – relatively spoken - and dragged on as the Donos family enjoyed breakfast together. Then, around ten o'clock, Myn's mother assumed command and, like a royal majordomus, began to dispatch husband, son and daughter-in-law on various errands, most of which were connected to the preparations of Selan's lifeday party which was a little over two weeks away.

Lunch was usually passed over, they mostly resorted to a quick snack when and if they found the time before returning to working through the list of tasks Jaleela had assigned to them. This went on until about mid-afternoon when they returned home from their various errands and proceeded to do what Myn had ironically christened _'homework'_. For him and Kirney this entailed dealing with the accumulated red tape and catching up with the necessary bookkeeping whereas his father withdrew into the small workshop he'd set up in the outbuilding to refurbish the old garden furniture. Jaleela was planning a barbecue as part of the lifeday party and said she'd need some tables, chairs and benches to arrange in the garden. Selan had sighed, he wasn't a particularly good handyman nor did he enjoy it, but his wife had ordered it.

"I may be a retired Colonel," he'd joked, "but she's an active _General_."

Around five o'clock in the afternoon the hectic of the day came to an end and the Donos family – including Kolot – assembled in the kitchen to prepare dinner. Once that was eaten, leisurely, they either withdrew for a quiet evening or gathered in the living room downstairs to spend time as family. This evening was such an occasion …

The blinds were closed and the only source of light was the spotlight above the table, which was covered by a velvety green tablecloth. A portable Sabacc system sat in the center and projected small interference fields in front of the five players. But at the moment only two were still in the game, piles of toy chips in front of them and in a huge heap in the middle. Of the three other players Selan had been the first to drop out of this round, Myn had been the second and his mother the last.

"Raise ten thousand," Kirney remarked casually and shoved the chips forward.

Kolot calmly tossed the necessary chips onto the pile in the middle.

The redhead glanced owlishly at her cards, put two of them into the interference field and slid one towards Selan who was doubling as dealer. "I take one," she said and lifted the corner of the card Selan dealt her.

Myn's father looked at Kolot, but the Ewok shook his head. Then he went on staring at Kirney who stared back with an expressionless mask on her face. Myn watched both closely, certain that none of them would let anything slip. It was quite a show, he had to admit.

Kolot took three stacks of chips and pushed them forward. "Raise thirty thousand."

Three sets of eyebrows ascended, then three faces turned to watch Kirney's reaction. The redhead remained stoically calm and tossed more chips onto the pile in the center. "I see your thirty and raise by twenty thousand."

Kolot was staring at her for a few seconds … and then he pushed his entire reserve of chips, a third of a million in toy credits, to the center.

Kirney hesitated and lifted the corners of her three cards, pondered her options and finally pushed the cards away. "I'm out."

"And with that," Selan announced in his function as card dealer, "the winner for tonight is Kolot. Tonin, log that."

The Ewok gave them a toothy grin and made the Victory sign with his right paw.

"Don't let it get to your head, furball," Kirney mock threatened and flexed her shoulders to ease the tension a bit. "Bet you must have had an Idiot's Array."

"Not quite." Kolot's grin turned sly and he flipped his cards. He'd held a worthless hand, the Three of Flasks, the Five of Sabers and the Four of Staves … not even close to the winning 23, positive or negative.

Kirney's jaw dropped while the others burst out laughing. "You were _bluffing_?"

"Yub-yub," he chuckled and gave a shrug. "Worked, didn't it?"

"And a lot better than for someone else we know," Selan quipped and elbowed his son lightly.

Myn flashed him a rude gesture. "Just because you managed to call my bluff _for once_ …"

"Even _I_ saw you were bluffing," Jaleela interjected with a stern glare at her son. "What happened to the cadet with the best Sabacc face of the milennium?"

"Yeah," Kirney agreed. "You're usually a lot better than tonight. Distracted?"

Myn rolled his eyes. The truth was that his mind hadn't been on the game and he also knew that he would not keep to himself what was bothering him. "A bit," he admitted aloud and frowned. "I'm worried about Jar."

"Ah." Selan arched an eyebrow. "Still the same or is there something new?"

His son took a handful of warra nuts from a bowl nearby and chewed quietly for a moment. "Something new," he finally conceded. "When I was picking up the beverages we'd ordered from Larkin's the checkout developed a glitch and a small queue formed. Just ahead of me was Vastus Moore, a starship tech foreman at Central. We started chatting about this and that while they were trying to fix the checkout and somehow we ended up talking about Jar. When I told him about the hyperdrive thing he was astonished that Jar has been able to afford it."

Jaleela shot him a curious look while reaching for the warra nut bowl herself. "How so?"

"Well, according to Moore our friend hasn't just had _'an incredible stretch of bad luck'_ … It's looking as if Jar has been skirting the edge of bancruptcy for months now."

Kirney's eyes widened. "Is he sure?"

Myn nodded gravely. "Spaceport Maintenance has received specific instructions not to accept any cheques or allow pay on account from Jar. Any work carried out on his ship has to be paid in cash." He paused. "In advance."

That elicited a low whistle from his mother. "That sounds really serious."

"Believe me, it is. But the best is yet to come." Myn shook his head. "Moore's sister-in-law is working for a bank in downtown Coronet City. According to her Jar is one big red financial warning light for all the banks on Corellia. He couldn't take out another loan as none of the banks would give him as much as a decicred."

Selan's brow creased in confusion. "So how did he pay for that hyperdrive?"

"That's the trillion credit question. I've been racking my brain ever since that conversation, but I can't fathom where Jar could have gotten the money from." Myn buried his face in his hands and groaned. "I've got the terrible feeling that Jar has done something really, _really_ stupid."

"Like what?" Jaleela asked with a skeptical expression on her face. "I mean it's worrying that your friend has financial troubles but why are you so concerned that he's done something stupid?"

"Two reasons," her daughter-in-law responded with a touch of resignation in her voice. "For starters Jarrath has the unfortunate habit of listening too much to that damned ego of his and not enough to his common sense. He's a proud, obstinate and never-say-die type of Corellian who thinks he has to do things his way or not at all. That has gotten him into a number of scuffles over the years but he just won't learn from that."

"And reason number two," Myn interjected, "is that he takes the old-fashioned values his parents drummed into him a bit too serious."

Selan raised a dubious eyebrow. "In which regard?"

"He just won't ask for or accept help when in trouble." Myn shook his head. "His parents taught him all those ultra-conservative values that go back to the first settlers. You know ... self-sufficiency, self-reliance, hanging on when times are getting tough ... Nothing wrong with that, but Jar took all of it too serious and turned it into a straightjacket that both locks him in a viscious circle and yet drives him forward."

"Now doesn't that sound familiar?" Selan drawled sarcastically which earned him a slap against the back of his head from his wife and a dirty look from his son.

"Yes, well ..." Myn gave his father another pointed look. "I know that sounds a lot like my problems back then. The difference is that Jar is the _civilian_ version of it and that's worse."

Kirney's puzzlement was evident as she frowned at him. "What's the difference and why is it worse?"

Myn sank back and closed his eyes for a moment. "Because I had military discipline, military decorum and a chain of command that kept me from running away when it mattered." He rubbed his face wearily and gave another sigh. "When I landed on _Mon Remonda_ after I'd shot at Kirney here Wedge used that decorum and his command authority to hold the mirror for me and then the ingrained military discipline to make me look into it. Jar has none of that ... and nobody whom he'd grant the authority to talk this frankly."

"What about his father?" Jaleela asked, but her daughter-in-law shook her head.

"Their relationship is rather distant. They didn't see eye to eye about Jarrath's choice of career."

"So there is really nobody Jarrath accepts as authority?"

"Give Kolot a blaster and Jarrath will listen," the Ewok, who had been silent so far, threw in with a patently false expression of diabolicalness. That drew chuckles.

"As long as you remember that he may want to have children some day," Kirney shot back and grinned.

That sent Selan into a fit of hysteric laughter, of course they knew _that_ story, but the hilarity was cut short by the chime of the door annunciator. After a moment of surprise they moved to the front door to see who was ringing this late in the evening.

As Myn opened the door they were greeted by the sight of a young blond woman in a light blue dress. Her beauty, however, was ruined by the streaks of eyeliner mixed with tears running down her cheeks, a split lip, a developing black eye and bruises all over her arms and on her right cheek.

Kirney gasped. "Oh Sith, Denna! What happened?"

"I need your help," Denna sobbed. "It's Jar ..."


	5. Chapter 5

"Sit still," Jaleela admonished as she was trying to put a bacta patch on Denna's split lip. The young woman fidgeted anyway. "I said keep still or this won't work."

Myn appeared from the pantry and handed her a bag of ice. "Here, for your eye."

Denna managed a grateful look but offered no verbal reply. Instead she put the ice on her left eye, which was beginning to swell and tilted her head slightly backwards. Jaleela went on cleaning cuts, applying bacta patches and synthflesh with the silent efficienty of the experienced ER nurse she'd been for so many years. Finally she rose from the crouch and closed the medikit case she'd put on the kitchen table.

"I wish I could do more," she said apologetically as she stored the kit in a locker.

"It's okay," Denna mumbled, the bacta patch on her lip clearly a bit of an impediment. "I'm sorry for foisting this on you …"

Myn shook his head. "Stop apologizing. This is what friends are for."

Kirney crouched down in front of her. "Denna," she said gently, "can you tell us what happened?"

For a second or two tears welled up in her one good eye but she forced herself to calm down just as quickly. "I wanted to see Jar." Her head drooped and she stared at the floor. "I hadn't seen him for weeks."

Kirney and Myn exchanged a puzzled look. "What do you mean? He's been back for a few days already."

Denna's shoulders sagged, her whole demeanor exuding misery. "I didn't know. I found out only today."

Myn gave her an incredulous stare. "You mean he didn't com you once he got back?"

She shook her head and it was clear how unpleasant this was for her. "No, he didn't. We …" Denna hesitated. "We've had … _issues_ … of late."

Kirney looked at her with a knowing expression. "Meaning he's been stressed, acerbic, distant, evasive and rather short-tempered?"

Denna looked up at her with surprise. "Yes," she confirmed. Then surprise gave way to embarrassment. "I thought he was seeing someone else. We argued … several times."

"Denna," Kirney said clearly hesitant to broach the subject, "did Jarrath do that to you?"

The look on the blond woman's face changed to pure horror. "No," she responded forcefully.

Kirney closed her eyes for a second, relieved that her greatest worry had proven to be unfounded. "Then tell us what happened!"

"When I heard that Jarrath's been back for days," Denna began and clearly made the effort to calm her rattled nerves, "I was furious. I tried to com his apartment but nobody answered. So I decided to wait until my shift was over and pay him a visit."

Selan arched an eyebrow. "This late?"

The young woman gave a self-deprecating shrug. "I figured if he didn't com me I had the right to barge in even at this unhuman time." She took a deep breath. "But when I arrived at the house where Jar has his apartment I knew something was off."

"What do you mean?" Myn asked.

"There was this huge black airspeeder with tinted windows." Her forehead creased into a puzzled frown. "It looked so … _sinister_ , so out of place in this neighborhood. You know where Jar's apartment is. This one was way more expensive, too expensive for such a run-down district."

"And then?" Kirney prompted gently.

Denna took a deep breath to steel herself. "When I arrived at Jar's door I found it half-open. There were some weird noises and raised voices coming out of it … and when I pushed open the door …" Bursting into tears again she slumped in her chair.

Kirney stroked her hand in an effort to comfort the distraught woman. "Shhh," she tried to calm her, hoping that she sounded more reassuring than she really felt. There was a hard cold knot growing in her guts, some kind of premonition of impending doom. "It's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be okay." _I hope._

Denna continued to alternate between crying and sobbing for a few minutes but ultimately she managed to calm down enough to continue her tale, though still interrupted by sobs now and then. "When I got into the room … There were four men. They were wearing dark coats or cloaks, were tall and muscular. Two held Jarrath between them and a third was just landing a punch in Jar's gut. And the fourth stood there, arms crossed in front of his chest and said _'I believe I've asked you a question.'_ "

The Donos family exchanged alarmed glances and Selan let out a startled "Sithspit!"

Kirney's face was now showing her own distress. "What happened then?"

"When I saw Jar's face, the blood, the bruises … I shrieked." Her right hand moved to her left arm, just where the bruises were most visible. "That's when they noticed me. The fourth man grabbed me and asked if I was Jar's … girlfriend." The momentary pause made it clear that a much less flattering term had been used.

Myn's face darkened. "Did this guy hurt you?"

Denna nodded, a new round of tears springing from her eyes. "I was so horrified. I demanded to be let go, that they let Jarrath go. But they just laughed." She took a shuddering breath. "Then the fourth man backhanded me against a locker, picked me up again and shoved me hard against a wall. While the three others were dragging Jarrath out of the apartment he said _'Not a word to security or you'll never see him again.'_ " At that point Denna broke down crying again.

"Okay, enough," Jaleela decreed and handed her a pack of tissues. "We need to call PSS and …"

" _No!_ " Denna shrieked in a fit of panic. Casting pleading looks at the people around her she said, "No Security! Otherwise Jar is dead!"

Myn rose from his crouch and looked at his mother. "I'm afraid I agree. We can't risk it. And I wouldn't trust PSS, anyway."

He tapped Kirney on the shoulder and motioned his father to come along. The three of them withdrew a few meters, out of Denna's immediate earshot, and watched for a moment as Jaleela tried to console the younger woman. "What are we going to do?" he began and finally let the worry he felt for his friend surface on his face. "Even though I'd rather leave PSS out of this I'm not sure we can handle something like this, either."

His father looked pensive for a moment. "Every operation starts with adequate reconnaissance." He raised an eyebrow at Myn and Kirney. "I suppose it's not too far fetched to assume that this may be connected too … What did you call it? … the _hyperdrive thing_ , is it?"

Kirney nodded. Her eyes flickered in the way both men had learned to associate with heavy thinking on her part. "That's a likely candidate. But I wouldn't want to assume too much, yet."

"So what's the plan?" Selan inquired.

"I don't like it very much, but I think we should go and take a look at Jarrath's communication logs and his computer files," Kirney responded unhappily. "We need tangible leads, facts, evidence … Without that we can't do a thing."

"Which means you need to get to your friend's apartment, slice into his computer system … and all of that with Denna present," Selan remarked quietly with a sideway glance at the blond woman sitting in the kitchen.

Myn's forehead creased in confusion. "Why that?"

His father fixed him with a look of strained patience. "Because she can let you into your friend's apartment as she has an access card, without her you'd be committing at least unlawful entry if not burglary."

"Point taken."

Selan turned to Kirney again. "How much do you want to tell her about your _other_ skills?"

"As little as possible," Myn threw in. "She knows about my past and thinks you've got military training as well. I'd rather not drop too many hints about the Intelligence angle, though."

"Which is why I'll let Tonin do the slicing," Kirney agreed. "Astromechs are known to be capable of slicing into lightly protected systems and knowing Jar I doubt he's got the kind of computer security that could keep an R2 out."

"Good idea," her father-in-law agreed.

Myn gave a nod. "And prepare the guest room for Denna. Whatever these guys want from Jar they now know he's got somebody he cares about. If he doesn't or can't give them what they want they may want to use her as additional leverage. I'd feel a lot better if she stayed with us until this is over."

Kirney tapped her chin with a thoughtful expression on her face. "And tomorrow she should call her boss and take a few days off. Because of an accident. Then nobody will start wondering about the source of her injuries."

"Good." Selan seemed satisfied with the solution. "We'll prepare the guest room for Denna and I'll stay awake in case somebody followed here here."

"And …" Kirney gave her father-in-law an intensive look, "in case we're not back in three hours you'll contact Rostek Horn and let him know what's happened. Just in case." Not waiting for an answer she turned away and went back to the kitchen to tell Denna what had been decided.


	6. Chapter 6

The trip in their airspeeder to the district where Jarrath had his apartment was markedly tense. Denna sat in the back, her frame rigid from shock and fear, her demeanour absent-minded, her eyes focused on the back of the co-driver's seat but obviously not seeing. She seemed to be caught in a nightmare of her own making, tormented by the demons roused by her own fears and worries, her imagination drawing up all but the scariest scenarios.  
Kirney, sitting in the back beside her, wasn't off that well, either. She was torn between two conflicting instincts: A part of her, the part that had been shaped by Imperial Intelligence and New Republic military training, wanted to focus on the task at hand, to contemplate possible situations and draw up appropriate responses. This part demanded focus, concentration and emotional detachment. It was also the part that made her fiddle with the blaster pistol in her tigh holster. It was, however constrained by something else, an urge to console and comfort, to reassure and to offer emotional support to the distraught woman sitting next to her. As she would later confide to Jaleela the strength of it and how utterly natural it felt surprised her greatly, especially given the near total emotional detachment she'd practiced after her parents' death and the resulting lack of experience in this area. In the same private conversation she would say with a note of dry amusement that it had felt almost maternal.  
In trying to accommodate both instincts, however, Kirney failed at achieving anything. She neither managed to switch to the "mission mindset" and concentrate nor did she manage to snap Denna out of the shock that held her in its nefarious clutches. That frustrated her and put her on the edge even more, adding to the already palpable tension in the air.

Myn, behind the controls of the speeder, had defaulted to his fighter pilot's instincts. His maneuvers were crisp and clear as if he was piloting a snubfighter through a dogfight and he kept his head on a swivel, making sure that no sector was left without a visual check for more than ten seconds. He flew defensively, remained within the speed limits and always kept one eye on the rear mirrors to check for possible pursuit.

They parked the speeder two side roads from Jarrath's apartment and manhandled Tonin out of the cargo compartment, thankfully without the astromech's habitual protestations and admonishments. Aparently the R2 unit had detected the state of mind of his master and mistress and had decided not to make a scene.  
They entered the housing block and rode up to the third floor in the turbolift without meeting another inhabitant of the run-down edifice. As they approached the door to their friend's apartment Myn drew his blaster and motioned the others to stay back.

"Give me the keycard," he said quietly and held out a hand to Denna who placed the desired item in it without a protest.

He slid the keycard through the lock and the door clicked open. With the blaster ready to fire he shouldered it open and checked the room. When he came up empty he holstered the weapon and motioned the others to come in. "Clear. Hurry."

Kirney moved to the desk with the communications console along the northern wall of the apartment and flipped a few switches. The ancient holoprojector whirred to life coughing, sputtering and creaking … until a solid hum filled the room. "Come on, Tonin. Your turn," she said to the astromech and pointed at the computer jack.

The R2 unit rolled forward, extended his connector arm and began slicing into the system. He remained silent for a few seconds, then turned his domed top and focused his optical sensor on his mistress.

"He says it's a standard commercial security setup," Kirney translated Tonin's bleeps, hoots and whistles. "This shouldn't take long."

"Good." Myn turned to look at Denna's reaction but she was staring at something on the floor on the other side of the couch. She was shaking slightly and there was a pinched look on her face as if she wanted to avert her eyes but couldn't. And then he saw it … It was a small puddle of dried blood on the ground, Jarrath's blood … _Oh Sithspit!_

He moved quickly, grabbed her shoulders and turned her away. She let it happen, almost like a puppet, and stared at him with hollow eyes. "Denna, snap out of it," he said and clicked his fingers before her eyes. That had no effect. "Hey! Denna, listen to me!"

Instead her head turned back towards the bloodstains on the floor.

Myn took hold of her chin and gently forced her to look at him. "Denna. Don't look at that. Concentrate on my voice. Look at me!" He waited for a moment and when he saw her eyes clearing and focussing he nodded. "Yes, just look at me. Do you want to lie down in the bedroom for a moment?"

She nodded, probably understanding only a part of what he'd said.

"Come on then." He took hold of her shoulders and guided her to the bedroom door, carefully interposing his own body between her and the stain to prevent her from looking at it again.

When he returned Kirney shot him a concerned look. "What's up with her?"

Myn ran a hand through his hair. "If I had to wager a guess I'd say the shock has gotten to her. I'm afraid she's on the verge of a nervous breakdown." He let out a sigh of vexation. "Sithspit, what were we thinking? We shouldn't have brought her here! She can't cope with it."

Kirney nodded unhappily. "I guess we were too focused on Jar to really think this through," she admitted. "Do you think your Mom has some sedative in her medicine cabinet in case we need to knock her out?"

He frowned. "No idea." Then he shook his head. "I guess not. Maybe something to help her sleep, but no outright sedative. Corellian law is quite strict on such stuff."

Tonin let out a soft warble and the holographic display changed.

"He's in," she said and sat down in the chair. "Load the com log, Tonin. Go back five weeks."

Myn moved until he stood behind her and peered over her shoulder. "Bills, reminders, more bills, final payment summons … What a depressing collection," he commented wearily.

"Yes, it's anything but cheerful. Hey, what's this?" Her fingers danced over the keyboard and one message, unusual due to its rather large file size, was highlighted. Kirney hit enter and the entry opened.

Myn narrowed his eyes as he read aloud. " _As discussed see finalized agreement attached to this message. Sign and return._ What the kriff?"

Kirney opened the attached file and stared at it in stupefaction. "It's a credit agreement. Twenty-five thousand credits."

Myn let out a derisive snort. "Reads more like a slave contract. Look at the interest rate."

His wife gasped. "Thirteen percent? That's extortion!"

"Of course it is," he agreed. "Scroll down a bit. I'm curious who granted the money. I bet it's a less than trustworthy source."

Kirney did as he asked. When the details of the creditor appeared she gave Myn a puzzled stare. " _Vhinntar Shipping_? Why would they … ?"

Again he let out a derisive snort. "With a profit margin like this?" Something began to tickle in the back of his head and he felt his neck hairs rise. For a moment he couldn't codify the growing knot of premonition … until he remembered what he'd seen on Behareh that day.

Kirney had noticed the abrupt change in his facial expression. "What is it?"

"Just remembered something." He quickly recounted what he'd seen upon his return to Corellia. "I found it odd that Vhinntar had bought out Solant Transports. I still do. I mean I don't know much about Vhinntar as a company, haven't heard much about it, but all of a sudden they started this insane shopping spree and began buying up rivals left and right. And now this. Where do they get the money from?"

"Maybe they won the lottery," she suggested sarcastically. "Tonin, is there any further message from that sender?"

The R2 unit's hoot was a musical cascade ranging from high to low. No further message had been received from that specific address.

"Okay." Kirney scratched a spot on her forehead, her eyes flickering again. "Can you extract the com node from this message? If so cross-check whether Jarrath has received other messages from the same com node range."

The droid chirped an affirmation and set to work.

"You got a suspicion?" Myn asked.

She shook her head. "Not really. Apart from this contract we have virtually nothing. On the other hand ..." Her voice trailed off.

"On the other hand the goons Denna described would certainly fit the stereotype of the heavy-handed tactics of a credit shark," he finished her sentence, but his face showed his doubts. "But a shipping company?"

Kirney nodded. "Yeah, it sounds pretty daft. On the other hand what do we know about Vhinntar Shipping? Virtually nothing. It's something to look into." She shot a glance at her wrist chrono. "We shouldn't stay here too long. Wouldn't want to make the neighbors suspicious and certainly I wouldn't want to get caught by security. Tonin, cancel the search. Copy all messages, including the archived ones, to your memory banks and then log out. We'll do this at home."

The astromech let out a warble of compliance, then chirped a cascade of sounds that was too complex for the two humans to understand. Thankfully the droid projected a translation as a popup window into the holographic display.

"Good question, Tonin," Myn replied and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Denna is pretty much out of it. I really hope she doesn't get a nervous breakdown."

Kirney snatched her comlink out of a pocket. "Go get her. I'll call ahead and let your mom know that she will need something that helps her sleep."

The trip home was just as tense as the outward trip had been, except that Denna had succumbed to a fitful sleep. The two remaining occupants of the airspeeder kept a close watch on their surroundings and even Tonin seemed to have extended his sensor equipment and scanned for pursuers, but they reached their home without having picked up such unwanted company.


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning saw the Donos family sit wearily at the breakfast table in their kitchen. Of course they'd given a short summary of what they'd found last night, but it had been too late and they'd been too tired to debate the issue and so they had agreed to retire for the night.

Myn yawned before taking another sip of his caf. "How's our guest?" he asked his mother.

"Still asleep," Jaleela returned but her face showed her worry. "I'm not sure how much that helps her at the moment. When I went to check up on her she was very restless." Heaving a tired sigh she rubbed her eyes. "I have no idea how long this can go on. If she really looses it ... I don't think we'll have much of a choice but to take her to a Medcenter. There they can give her the stuff that works, including a sedative if necessary."

Selan let out a grunt. "But of course they'll be asking all kinds of awkward questions, questions we don't really want to answer, do we?"

"No, not really, "Kirney agreed. "I hesitate to ask this, Jaleela, but can't you use your connections to ..."

"... to get some sedative to keep under control if push came to shove?" the older woman finished sharply. "I could, but I won't. Sedating her would not solve the problem per se, in fact it could make it worse."

Kirney flinched at her tone. "How much worse."

"Much, _much_ worse," was Jaleela's answer. "An untreated nervous breakdown may cause all kinds of psychological issues. I certainly won't stand by and not help her just becasue that would be better for us."

"Okay, okay," Myn's father interjected gently, "no need to argue. We'll deal with the situation when and if it happens." Clutching the cup of caf in both hands he looked at his daughter-in-law. "I'm actually more interested in your findings."

Kirney shrugged. "We found _something_ , but I'm not sure what to make of it."

"You mean that contract?"

She nodded. "It would explain where Jar got the money for the hyperdrive, but it doesn't necessarily explain what happened to him yesterday."

Jaleela looked at her curiously. "How so?"

"Goons beating up a defaulter? That's stereotype credit shark tactics," Myn threw in with an undertone of derison. "However, I have serious problems with believing that a rival shipping company would resort to such tactics. That wouldn't make sense!"

"Yeah, they would be more interested to see him actually pay those 13 percent interest on the loan," Selan remarked acidly. A sudden frown stole its way onto his face. "Unless ..." He trailed off.

Myn nodded glumly. "Unless the money wasn't the issue and they were after something else."

"It's certainly not his shuttle," Kirney said. "That thing's a wreck, it's in dire need of a major overhaul but I'm not sure that would still be worthwhile. It's so old it may actually be a write-off."

Jaleela gulped down the remnants of her caf and poured herself another cup. "So what were they after if it wasn't money or his ship? His clients? Customers? Contacts?"

Myn shrugged. "No idea. Jar has never been particularly forthcoming about his business practices." He looked at his wife. "What do you think?"

Kirney yawned. "Sorry. No idea, really. I know Jar's been flying some routes to isolated outposts or mining installations most other transport companies wouldn't fly to. Too remote, too out of the way and not profitable enough, but I can't imagine this being of interest."

"Maybe they were just interested in driving a competitor out of business," Jaleela suggested.

"Perhaps." Selan looked at his family one by one. "But as I see it all we have at the moment is idle speculation, haven't we?"

"Unless, of course, Tonin finds something," Myn remarked casually.

"Sithspit," his wife groaned and pushed her chair back from the table. "I totally forgot about that. I'll go and get him. Maybe he's got something."

As Kirney left the kitchen Jaleela looked at her son and raised an eyebrow. "What is that about?"

Myn grimaced. "We didn't want to get caught by security or a gang so she told Tonin to make a copy of Jarrath's com log and all the messages so we could leave. Not to mention," he added glumly, "that Denna wasn't that well and we didn't want to risk her getting hysterical."

"Yes, but ..." His father shook his head. "Copying someone else's com log? Isn't that a bit ... well ... _drastic_?"

"It is," Kirney admitted as she returned through the door, her faithful Tonin trailing behind. "But given the circumstances I didn't see any other option." She dropped back onto her chair and rubbed her eyes. "But I'm not prepared to sit around and wait for Jarrath to turn up in a body bag."

"And how will you explain that to him if you manage to get him out?"

" _Once_ we've gotten him out," Kirney corrected her father-in-law. "About the other thing ... He will never know."

Selan's face showed his unease about the whole situation. "But is that wise? I mean, to keep such a secret from him ..."

"We're already keeping a secret from him," Myn remarked calmly but gave his father a direct stare. "Some things are better off not known."

The unease in Selan's face remained but he relented. "Yeah, okay."

"Good." Kirney patted her astromech's domed roof. "Have you found something?"

Tonin warbled an affirmation, followed by a long and confusing cascade of hoots, warbles, tweets and chirps. His mistress leaned closer to read the translation running across the small screen.

"What's he saying?" Jaleela asked but Kirney held up a hand and continued to read the scrolling text.

"He said the com log and the archive didn't contain anything related to the message with the credit agreement," she summarized for her family. "But he's managed to reconstruct two messages Jarrath had deleted. He wants to show them to us."

The R2 unit twisted around on his wheels, his projector lens focusing on the empty spot between the conservator and the kitchen table and power up his projector.  
The holo that appeared showed the simple user interface of a standard multitype messenger system that Jarrath used for his personal mailbox. One of two entries was highlighted, then the screen morphed into the message Tonin had selected.

* * *

 _Demand of Repayment_

 _On behalf of Vhinntar Shipping LLC I hereby notify you of my client's demand of repayment of the 25,000 Credits that have been granted to you, Mr. Jaarath Lund, as part of the Credit Agreement 0009873782 due to the contract being void on behalf of your party's knowing deceit and fraudulent concealment of your true financial situation. You are hereby called upon to transfer the loaned sum back to my client's bank account by the seventh day after receiving this letter of notification at the latest. Should you refuse to comply with this demand my client has reserved itself the right to appeal to court._

 _Yenved Saris  
Attorney_

* * *

Myn stared at the letters hovering in the air above the ground and was left speechless. Had Jarrath really tried to gain a loan by fraud? And if he had what the hell had he been thinking?

"Oh Jar," Kirney breathed and her worry for her friend was etched on her face. "What have you gotten yourself into?"

Myn's father shook his head in disbelief. "Would your friend really do something like this?"

His son buried his face in his hands and groaned. "I don't know. Jar must have been very desperate in any way. Maybe ..."

Tonin let out a subdued hoot.

Kirney arched an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean by ' _You won't like the next one any better_ '?"

The astromech hooted again, a long drawn-out hoot that sounded like an approximation of a long human sigh. The holographic scene changed, the curt letter disappeared and in its stead the face of a harsh-looking man appeared.

 _"Mr. Lund,"_ the stranger began and Myn felt as if someone had just crawled over his grave. _"You have been given the chance to settle this dispute peacefully and without involving the authorities. You have rejected this offer in the most impertinent way I have ever seen."_ The man's holo leaned forward, his face hardened even further. _"You have until tomorrow 1800 hours sharp to settle this, or we will have to resort to different methods. This is your last warning. Heed it!"_

Tonin froze the recording and gave a subdued hoot.

Kirney patted his domed roof. "Thanks, buddy. You've ..."

"That's _him_ ," a new voice exclaimed. "That's the man who hit me!"

"Denna!" Myn got up and moved to the side of the young woman who was standing on the threshold to the kitchen, her right arm outstretched to point at the holo still hovering in mid-air, her eyes wide from surprise and fear and her expression a bit moony. "Come, sit down," he said gently and guided her to the table where his father had already pulled out one of the chairs for her.

"How are you, my dear?" Jaleela asked in what she hoped a soothing and motherly tone, but it seemed to bounce off the younger woman.

Denna tore her eyes off the frozen recording - which disappeared when Kirney quietly tapped Tonin's top and the droid got the silent hint - and forced a weak smile. "I ... don't know," she admitted hesitantly and pushed her hand through her messed-up hair. "Not too well, I'm afraid."

An uncomfortable silence followed, even the advancing sweep hand of the old mechanical clock on the wall seemed to mute its _Click_ noise in anticipation. Finally Kirney's sense of realism pushed her to ask the question that was on everyone's mind but nobody wanted to ask. "Denna, you said this was the guy who hit you?"

The blond woman didn't answer verbally, she merely gave a dejected nod.

Exchanging a glance with her husband, and receiving a grimace in return, Kirney went on. "Are you _absolutely_ sure that this is the one?"

Denna exhaled slowly and visibly pulled herself together. "Yes, absolutely sure," she mumbled before burying her face in her hands. "I keep replaying the scene in my head again and again ... That's not a face I'll forget anytime soon." Her hands dropped back to the table. "Who is he? What's his name?"

Myn shrugged. "We don't know. He didn't introduce himself."

"So why did he do this?" When Myn and Kirney exchanged a look she asked, "What?"

"Denna," Myn began and it was obvious he was wrestling with how to formulate what he was trying to say, "How much do you know about Jarrath's business?"

Darting suspicious looks at the members of the Donos family Denna inquired, "I am not going to like where this is going, am I?"

Selan shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

Heaving a sigh the younger woman seemed to slump in her chair. "Tell me," she muttered. "I want to know."

"Denna, did you know that Jar has been fighting against bancruptcy for a few months already?" Kirney asked quietly.

"What?" Denna's head jerked upwards. "I had no idea ..."

"Neither did we, until a few days ago," Myn admitted quietly. "But apparently he's maxed out his credit with any bank a while ago. So ..."

"So _what_?"

He grimaced. "His hyperdrive failed a few weeks ago and he had no money to get a new one. No bank would give him any further credit and so he went to a less respectable source."

Again Jar's girlfriend buried her face in her hands and groaned, "Sithspit! I knew something was off. He was so ... so ... Oh, I don't know. Unlike himself." Her head jerked up. "Can you help him?"

Myn looked decidedly uncomfortable. "We'd have to find him first."

"But you have a lead," Denna said, her face full of suprise and dread.

"Maybe." Kirney leaned forward with sympathy etched on her features. "But as far as leads go this is thinner than a Loveti Moth fibre. We can connect the creditor with the thugs who beat Jar and hurt you, but we still don't know where Jar is."

Denna slumped in her chair. "He's lost then," she whispered and tears began to trickle down her cheek.

"No," Myn responded forcefully. "Don't give up hope. We said we don't know where he is, we never said we wouldn't even try." He exchanged a look with his wife and received a nod in return. "We'll try to find him. And if we do, we'll get him out."

"And how?"

Kirney opened her mouth, but Tonin let out a warble followed by a cacophony of droidish noises that were impossible for them to translate. His misstress leaned closer and watched the translation scroll across the small screen. "He said we should look up more information on the creditor first. We know too little about them at this point," she read out aloud, secretly relieved that the astromech had spared her the task of mapping out their next steps. That might have roused some decidedly awkward questions. "And he says we shouldn't do this from here."

Denna blinked. "Why?"

"Because," Myn's father responded as understanding dawned on his face, "people resorting to such methods may be monitoring if someone is requesting information on them. We don't want to lead them here."

"Oh. And then?"

"One step after the other," Kirney answered gently. "I know time's not on our side but without some more information we won't get anywhere."

"Can I help?" Denna asked pleadingly.

Myn shook his head. "You stay here. Tonin, Kirney and I will do this."

"But I ..."

"Denna," Kirney interjected gently. "I know you don't want to sit around, but you're in no shape to do anything. This is a job suited for a small team. Tonin will access the computer network from public terminals, I'll watch over him and Myn will be our backup."

"In case they do monitor information requests and decide they don't like the attention," Myn added quietly. "Come on," he said as he rose from his chair and pulled his wife up as well, "gotta change into something more appropriate. We've got no time to waste."

Denna heaved another heavy sigh, her gaze dropping to the intricate texture of the table's wooden grain.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hi Jennifer!**

 **Thanks for the review. To answer your question: I think that by this time the two of them have long since made contact with the Wraiths. The way Aaron Allston wrote the references (and that scene) into _"Mercy Kill"_ has convinced me that he thought they'd meet up quite soon after Lara/Kirney "died" and not decades later. The references to the "King of the Droids" ploy, the casual reference to Lara between Voort and Sharr, Voort's unsurprised reaction to Kirney and how he _not_ called her Lara accidently ... too many aspects pointing to an old ease between them. As for writing that scene ... I have a part of it on my HDD, I had actually begun to write it even before starting this fic (back in 2012!) but I've hit a Death Star sized blockade there that simply refuses to budge. Maybe, one day, inspiration may strike me and I can actually finish that story, but until then ... *insert knowing grin* ... Just wait and see. ;)**

* * *

Throughout the day the two humans and their droid sidekick moved through the capital city from one public information terminal to the other, never staying longer than ten minutes, always requesting but one kind of information per terminal access, always paying in cash so that they wouldn't leave a money trail others could follow.

Kirney had called this _'operating under maximum paranoia'_ , the assumption that they were facing the most vigilant, sophisticated and skilled of opponents which, in turn, obligated them to adhere to the strictest security measures they could think of. But even if they were overdoing their 'paranoia' a bit, which was likely as she quietly admitted to herself, she didn't think anything less would allay the unease she felt in her guts. This was different, this was _their family_ ...

As such it was mid-afternoon when the three of them returned from their information gathering marathon but despite the weariness they felt they immediately called for an immediate family debriefing in the living room.

"Vhinntar Shipping," Kirney began, a datapad with the salient points of her presentation in hand while Tonin, who held the data they'd collected, was linked to the holoprojector there. The holo of a middle-aged man with brown hair and bland features appeared. "Founded eight years ago by Josar Vhinntar, a Sacorrian. For the first five years or so his business ran as pretty much all the small shuttle and transportation companies."

Selan scratched his chin. "And then something happened."

Kirney nodded. "The company began with a single ship, just as I began my shuttle business before Myn came home. But three years ago he suddenly expanded his fleet to three ships. At a time, if I might remind you, when the Imperial Forces of the reborn Emperor were wreaking havoc across the galaxy."

Selan nodded darkly. "I remember. It was difficult to get any decent information on what was going on and then Teradoc attacked the planet."

"It was a difficult time for all small transport companies, I barely managed to get by, mostly because I no longer had to pay the rent for my apartment after moving in here, and I know a lot of pilots who had to declare bancruptcy over this," Kirney added glumly.

"Hmmm." Myn stared at the holo with a thoughtful expression on his face. "So that raises a flag, a small one but a flag nontheless. At a time when the rest of the business is scraping the bottom of the barrel he's managed to extend his company. And I doubt it was due to clean living."

"So how did he manage that?" Jaleela asked but her daughter-in-law merely shrugged.

"We don't know. We'd need to sift through his financial records but getting them is damn near impossible and we're not that curious, anyway."

"Okay."

"What I find interesting, however, is that this expansion didn't stop there." She nodded at Tonin and a series of news snippets replaced Vhinntar's holo. "Over the following year Vhinntar Shipping accquired a total of four small-sized shipping companies, totalling a value of roundabout one million credits."

Denna arched an eyebrow. "Loan?"

Kirney shrugged again. "We have no way to find out, but I somehow doubt it because of what happened next."

Again the droid changed the holo and the news snippets were replaced by a news article describing the groundbreaking and dedication of Vhinntar Shipping's new corporate headquarters. Selan's eyebrows shot up and he let out a low whistle when he read the address. "A new building on Coronet Boulevard? Wow! This is beyond expensive."

Myn snorted. "You bet. I've heard real estate along that road is so in demand that they have a ten-year-waitlist even for the high society."

His father frowned. "I don't like the implications of this."

"Neither do we," Kirney agreed. "As a result we've looked at further real estate owned by Vhinntar Shipping - which is surprisingly little. The company owns a stretch of tarmac in the south-eastern quadrant of Coronet Central Spaceport along with three hangars, the company HQ on Coronet Boulevard and a small storage facility in a run-down industrial park on the outskirts of Coronet City. Any other real estate that came with the company accquisitions was quickly sold."

"Which is good," Myn said as he rose from his chair and gestured at the holographic display. "For us, I mean. If Vhinntar really has Jar in his clutches and he's taken him to a location owned by his company we have a pretty good idea where he could be."

Denna perked up at his words, hope appearing on her weary face for the first time since her unexpected arrival. "You do?"

Myn shrugged. "It's a guess, but one based on some leads and my tactical analysis. Tonin, show the holos of the Company HQ, please."

The droid warbled an affirmation and the holo changed to a collection of shots of an angular office complex with a full transparisteel front and, as the shots revealed, lots of open space inside.

"As you can see Vhinntar's HQ is a typical office complex with lots of transparisteel and little to no dividing walls. Unless they've built an extended basement there's no room for any dealings as shady as beating someone to a pulp. Given that there's a large speeder park for the employees behind the building I doubt there's a basement at all, not even an underground speeder park for the executive. Because that would have made the construction twice as expensive."

"What about the hangars at the spaceport?" his father asked.

"Unlikely, too." Myn shook his head. "They're in the security zone meaning you will get searched thoroughly before you can set foot in there. Besides the place is too public, even in the middle of the night, too many people around."

Selan gave a nod. "I agree. So far Vhinntar has been trying to uphold the facade of a normal company with no questionable practices. If I were in his place I'd not risk that by dragging a badly beaten captive to a place this lively."

"It wouldn't make sense," Kirney agreed, "but some incident within the past six months make me wonder if that facade is really just masking his business practices."

Denna arched an eyebrow. "How so?"

Kirney patted Tonin's dome and the holo changed, again showing a selection of news snippets. "Because within the past six months this _expansion_ has picked up steam so much that my gut tells me there's much more to this than meets the eye."

Scanning the various news snippets Denna's brow wandered up towards the hairline. "Five company takeovers within six months? Wow."

Kirney nodded. "That's what I thought, too. And this time the companies were larger and worth a lot more than before. Just the ships and the real estate he's accquired through this are worth more than 4 million credits. And that's a conservative estimation."

Selan exhaled slowly, his expression thoughtful. "So unless he won the Corellian Lottery or the _Coronet City Sabbacc Bash_ the question is where he's gotten the money from."

"And the other question," his son added, "is why is he accquiring companies at this rate. What's the purpose?"

Kirney offered yet another shrug. "We don't know the answer to either question. But my instinct says there's something going on behind the scenes." Heaving a sigh she switched topics. "Anyway, we now have a name for that piece of Hutt slime who hits women. Bring it up, Tonin."

The holo that appeared showed the man Denna had already identified as the leader of the group who'd beaten up Jar and who had injured her. It was an official portrait holo, the man was wearing a dark suit with shirt and blue tie, his face serious as he gazed at the camera.

"This is Yagomir Dempsey, official head of company security of Vhinntar Shipping. Born on Centerpoint Station he later served a stint with Planetary Defense before switching to private security services." She smiled cynically. "That's what the company holosite says."

"Meaning the remaining ninety percent of his story, the stuff that would be of interest to us, aren't mentioned," Jaleela scoffed.

"Yeah." Myn rubbed his face wearily. "We now have an official connection between Jar's disappearance and Vhinntar Shipping. Nothing that would do much good in court, but enough for me to take a closer look at the remaining real estate." He nodded at the astromech. "Tonin, bring up the orbital view of the storage facility."

The satellite view of the area in question showed a medium-sized and roughly rectangular area nestled between an L-shaped densely wooded hill on two sides and what looked like a ruined factory building on the other side. Only the shortest side of the fenced-in facility had a road access.

"Looks cozy," his father remarked and gestured at the holo. "This hill is providing visual cover from two sides, the factory building from the other side. The many trees along the perimeter and rows of containers add to this privacy. Looks like the perfect spot hide things you don't want other people to see."

His son nodded. "Exactly. The only thing we know about this location is that Vhinntar's company has been founded here, at least that's the story the company holosite tells. Other than that we know nothing."

Selan arched an eyebrow. "Nothing?"

"Nothing," his son responded.

"And still you two want to go there and look for your friend tonight?"

"No, not tonight," Myn answered and shook his head. That earned him a questioning look from his wife. "Sorry, love, but I'm not prepared to charge into a place we know nothing about without even the slightest amount of reconnaissance. Besides ..." He stretched and allowed himself the yawn he'd been suppressing for quite some time already. "Besides we're both tired from bouncing across Coronet City. If we went in there tonight we'd struggle not to fall asleep."

"What about Jar?" Denna asked, her face tight as she struggled not to burst into tears again.

Myn went into a crouch in front of her and took her hand. "I know you're worried about Jar. I'm worried about him, too. But this is my family, Denna. I couldn't look into the mirror ever again if something happened to Kirney just because we were too impatient. We need to scout out the place a bit better, we need to know what will await us."

"Let me guess," Selan threw in mockingly, "Despite being ready to drop from tiredness you're going to put yourself on that wooded hill tonight and watch the proceedings down in the facility."

"No," his son disagreed and rose from the crouch. "You still have that holocam and the small tripod, haven't you?" When his father nodded he smiled. "We put this on the hill and leave it there until tomorrow."

"Good idea." Kirney joined them and snuck an arm around her husband's waist, her head coming to rest on his shoulder. "I can modify a comlink to transmit on Tonin's specific frequency and if we add a bit of encryption to the data stream we're going to have a nice and relatively secure live feed. Tonin can monitor what's going on there and can give us a summary in the morning." She shot the droid a wicked smile. "You up for twenty-four hours of surveillance, Squirt?"

Tonin moaned, then chirped a resigned affirmation.


	9. Chapter 9

**_jaeveret - Thank you. *blushes*_**

 ** _Author's Note: I'll be on vacation over christmas and the new year starting tomorrow, but I have pre-uploaded the chapters to be posted so there won't be a break._**

* * *

The next morning saw Myn waking up to the sound of retching and after a few disoriented seconds between sleep and wakefulness he realized it came from the refresher. He blinked into the darkness, but the blinds were drawn and so he couldn't make out much more than what was illuminated by the chrono on his nightstand.

The retching ended, there was a flush of water and the door to the refresher cell opened revealing his wife's outline before she snapped off the light.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice hoarse from sleeping with his mouth open.

Kirney jumped. "Oh, sorry Myn. I didn't want to wake you."

As she slid back into the bed Myn pulled her close and let her rest her head on his shoulder. "You okay?" he repeated his question.

Long ago they'd made a pact never to keep things from the other, unless it pertained to lifeday presents or planned surprises, and Kirney sighed. "I've had a bad dream," she admitted quietly.

His eyes widened, even though she wouldn't be able to see it in the darkness. "Enough to make you sick?"

His wife sighed again. "Yeah. It sounds stupid, I know, but ..."

"It doesn't," he assured her and kissed the top of her head. "What were you dreaming about?"

"It was pretty bewildering, confusing. But it was mostly about ... " Her voice trailed off.

"About what we're going to do," he guessed shrewdly and felt her tense.

Kirney exhaled slowly, the tension seeping from her body. "Yeah. Ever since we found out what happened to Jar I've been ... Oh, I don't know. Worried? Stressed out? Or is it terrified? I can't decide."

Myn was torn between the instinct to console and the pledge to be honest. Honesty won. "Can't say I'm not wondering if we're getting ourselves into something way too big for us." He wriggled his body to get a more comfortable position. "I mean we were professionals, we've done this before in circumstances far worse. But ...

"But back then we had a full squad, we had access to Intelligence resources and we had backup," Kirney finished the thought. "And right now we only have ourselves."

"Yeah," he agreed softly and placed another kiss on her hair. "I'll be honest, love. If we'd still have the old CorSec I'd have pressured Denna to go there. They still had a code of honor, a codex they followed. I'd have trusted them to get Jar out of there alive. But PSS? I suspect they'd be happy to sacrifice him if they can take out a criminal organisation, if they they were to do anything at all."

She nodded, he felt it rather than saw it. "I understand. So what can we do?"

"Be professionals," he answered simply. "Plan meticulously, triple check everything and pray we're not running into something we can't deal with."

That drew a snort. "Sounds like a good motto for Wraith Squadron."

"Nah," he disagreed with a small smile. "That slot is taken, remember?"

"Oh, right." Kirney chuckled and then cast a glance at the chrono on the nightstand. It was five minutes to four o'clock in the morning. "Come on, husband mine," she joked and then yawned. "Let's be professional and sleep a few more hours. The day is going to be long enough."

He briefly tightened his hold on her. "G'night," he mumbled and closed his eyes.

The professionalism they'd talked about dominated most of their activities over the day. It provided a soothing balm for their personal worries and fears - it kept them busy, for which both were grateful.

 _"A busy mind,"_ Kirney had said, _"doesn't have time to worry."_

The overwhelming amount of Imperial military gear that the _Fair Trade_ had contained upon her arrival on Corellia had been sold to provide Kirney the seed capital she'd needed for her shuttle business. A small part of it, however, had been retained and put into storage for emergencies, for situations like the current one.

Myn's part in the preparations brought him back to his roots as infantryman and sniper. He picked the two BlasTech E-11 blaster rifles and two of the compact SoroSuub Q-2s5 Scout Trooper Blaster pistols from the duraplast box and withdrew into his father's workshop. First he disassembled the blaster pistols, noting with a frown the lack of an ordinary trigger mechanism, cleaned their parts, exchanged the old Tibanna gas container and reassembled them. Then he did the same with the E-11 rifles, but the more he worked on those two the less satisfied he was with their makeup. Especially the ergonomics left much to be desired in his opinion, the rattly folding stock and the lack of a solid handhold in the front rousing his dissatisfaction in particular. Not to mention that neither himself nor Kirney had the height of an average Stormtrooper so that neither weapon would be perfectly adapted to its user's body dimensions without some serious modifications. Unwilling to accept such compromises he took their airspeeder to a local arms dealer and bought conversion kits that were popular with other users of these weapon types.

After returning home he first disassembled the blaster pistols again, removed the notoriously fiddly pressure sensor mechanism and installed the more useful ordinary trigger mechanisms he'd bought. Once satisfied he took the E-11 blaster rifles, detached the folding stock and removed the clumsy scope whose many functions were useless without a Stormtrooper helmet, added modern Patagar equipment rails underneath the barrel's heat shield and a modern holographic aimpoint sight, a much simpler but more useful aiming device for their needs, before turning to the main part of the conversion kit: length- and heigh-adjustable buttstocks made of a sturdy but light plasteel. It didn't take him long to install the various components for his training as a sniper of the Corellian Planetary Defense Forces had contained extensive theoretical and practical education on maintaining, repairing and especially adapting all kinds of firearms to his personal needs and preferences. Once the parts had been assembled and attached to the rifle itself he added the last two pieces he'd bought: a frontgrip for increased stability and precision and a tactical sling very popular with CPD's Special Forces which allowed the user to wear the weapon either in front of his stomach, at his side or on his back without the need to adjust the sling's position over his shoulder. One of the rifles he immediately adapted to his own body dimensions, the other to those of his wife.  
His next and last trip for this day took him to a local shooting range which he knew had the equipment to accurately sight weapons. He spent two hours adjusting and adapting the new aimpoint sights to the two rifles, checked and finetuned the trigger settings and fired over three hundred rounds at the targets before finally being satisfied with the average precision of the rifles and pistols, trying out every firing mode including - and especially - the stun settings.  
Back home again he spent the rest of the afternoon overpainting the screaming white plastoid parts of two Stormtrooper tool belts with a black colour he'd found in his father's workshop before joining Tonin as the droid kept watch of the storage facility and the proceedings there.

Kirney also returned to a part of her Intelligence training by taking several military comlinks from the box. Such devices were not sold on the civilian market and being caught using one could rouse some very inconvenient questions, but they were much more secure than civilian models due to their in-built real-time encryption module and a lot more practical due to their earpiece, microfilament microphone which could be tacked on the user's cheek and the tongue switch which allowed the user to keep his hands free for other tasks. First she enlisted her father-in-law for testing the comlinks, then she retreated to her office and began adjusting the devices to their needs. First she downscaled the transmission power settings so that their signal wouldn't be picked up beyond two klicks, just in case PSS was scanning for unusual comlink transmissions. In a second step she adjusted all four complinks to a very out-of-the-way and unusual frequency at the edge of the devices' capability range so that they wouldn't inadvertedly overlay other comlinks in the area. As the third and final measure she introduced a number of presets for encryption, codes she'd based on the old Starfighter Command code sequences Tonin still carried in his memory banks before adding the same modifications to Tonin's built-in comlink system.

After another round of tests Kirney took a hitherto unused datapad out of its packaging, spent an hour disassembling it and removing any kind of serial number from its components and the case before reassembling it and adding a number of programs she'd written for the Wraiths that could be potentially useful for their planned infiltration to its memory banks. She then repeated what she'd done with the comlinks - first she set the datapad to a different out-of-the-way communication frequency and tight-beam mode, added the various encryption presets and tested the device whether it could receive live feed from the droid along with additional information the astromech may consider useful. Once satisfied she joined her husband in finishing their preparations, taking out loose black clothing and two light armored vests to be worn underneath, preparing vibroblades, dark synth-leather gloves and two black balaclavas before finally collapsing onto the couch in the downstairs' living room.

Selan looked up from the datapad he was studying. "All set?"

Kirney closed her eyes and heaved a sigh. "Yeah. About as ready as we'll ever be."

"Weapons are ready," Myn added without taking his eyes off the live feed, "ammo packs are full and reserve ammo in the respective pouches on the toolbelts." He finally did look up from the holoscreen and grimaced. "Wish we could get flash suppressors, but they're illegal outside the military and law enforcement. I didn't want to stretch our luck."

His father arched an eyebrow at that. "You're not going in there to eliminate them," he reminded him. "Remember your mission parameters, son. Using a weapon must be the last option."

Myn grimaced. "I know."

"Okay then." Selan cast a glance at the chrono. "You ready for the briefing?"

Kirney looked up in surprise. "Now?"

"Yes now." Her father-in-law gestured at the chrono on the wall. "Because in an hour we're going to have a light dinner and then the three of us are going to bed and sleep a few hours."

Myn opened his mouth to disagree, but Selan silenced him with a swipe of his hand.

"Objection noted but overruled, soldier," he said in a tone that didn't allow for argueing. "You'll need all your wits about you in this and not be weary from insufficient rest."

His son snapped his mouth shut recognizing the tone as the command tone that had made him quiver as a boy. Instead he sat down on the couch next to his wife.

Selan gave a nod of approval. "Tonin, switch live feed to background and bring up the annotated satellite view, please."

The astromech warbled and the holocam view of the facility was replaced by a satellite image.

"The facility is active seven days a week between oh-six hundred and twenty-three hundred." He looked at the two of them in the manner of a teacher casting a glance at his class above the rim of his glasses. "Which means our window of time is between oh-one-hundred and oh-four-hundred. Hence the additional rest I prescribed."

Myn scratched his chin, noting with surprise that he'd have to shave again. "How many people at night?"

"Interestingly enough ... just seven. Tonin, show annotations."

Thin yellow, orange and red streaks along with a blue rectangle and a red dot appeared at the north-eastern entrance, the western, southern and eastern edges of the compound.

Selan pointed at the red dot at the main entrance. "Ordinary guard. Sits in his guard shed and does whatever private security does through the night." Then he gestured at the blue rectangle a few meters away from it. "This looks like some kind of common room, probably an old temporary shelter. Tonin has mapped that patrols all converge on that point."

Kirney nodded. "Patrol schedule?"

"Irregular. Two-men patrols emerging from that confab every thirty minutes or so, but they do it in irregular intervals and there are never more than two patrols out at the same time."

"So the other two serve as some kind of reserve," his son deduced, ever the tactician. To his surprise his father shook his head.

"In a normal military, yes, but I think this is simply sloppiness. I've studied their behavior, at least as much as I could given the darkness and distance, and they seem to be more interested in gossipping and killing time than acting like real security." His sudden smile surprised both Myn an Kirney. "Which is good for us because you probably won't have to deal with them."

"Huh? Why that?"

Selan's smile got wider. "Tonin, bring up recording Cresh twelve, please."

The holographic projection changed yet again, the satelite view being replaced by the angle of the remote holocam they'd left on the southern part of the hill. The holo played for a few seconds, showing a number of loading droids and humans loading a bunch of containers onto cargo haulers in the south-eastern corner of the compound. Then a door of the common room opened and a gray-clad figure emerged.

"Tonin, freeze please."

Selan's finger circled the tiny figure. "Watch this guy here. Okay, unfreeze."

The person walked sedately across the central yard and disappeared into the only other building on the compound, an old shack which had seen better days.

"Fast forward one hundred and forty-six seconds, please."

The picture distorted, the movements of the beings in view being accelerated so much that they actually looked like a hustling state of insects. When the gray-clad person emerged from the shack Tonin brought the replay back to normal speed.

"What's he holding in his hands?" Kirney asked as she leaned forward.

"Patience," her father-in-law advised with a smile. "Just watch."

The figure made its way past a row of containers on the western part of the compound, holding something that looked like a tray of some sorts in both of his hands. Finally he turned around another row of stacked cargo containers and cast a glance around.

"Tonin, freeze again and zoom in on quadrant Besh Sixteen."

The R2 unit chirped, the holo above the projector losing crispness and depth of details while the designated area got bigger.

"Looks like a tray," Myn said as he cocked his head. "Is that a bottle on the left side?"

Kirney was also staring at the holo with narrowed eyes as she was straining to make out more details from the grainy picture. "That's food," she finally declared in surprise, "some kind of self-heating meal, I think."

Selan gave her a nod of approval. "Exactly. Okay, unfreeze the sequence, please."

The person moved one hand underneath the tray and secured it against his chest in an attempt to keep it in balance while his right reached out to something that was blocked from the camera's view by the corner of a stacked container. Then a concealed hatch in the lowest container opened and gave view into a dark nothingness. The figure entered and began to walk down what looked to be a flight of stairs, then the hatch closed behind him.

Myn gave his father a wide-eyed look of surprise. "There's something below, some kind of underground level that's not on any official plans."

Selan nodded. "And before you ask - this sequence is one of several. It was recorded today at eleven fifty, but we have similar recordings from the morning as well."

"It's always one meal?" Kirney asked and got a nod in return. "Hidden location, single meal three times a day. Jarrath?"

Selan smiled broadly, like a teacher whose prize student had solved a complex task on his own. "Possibly, at least I hope so."

"Okay," Myn muttered thoughtfully, "then we should concentrate on that one. So now we need to hammer out how to play this. Tonin, can you please give the satelite view again?"

Their planning session went on for another fifty minutes before Jaleela called them to the kitchen for the dinner she'd prepared. Even Kolot emerged from his room to which he had exiled himself after Denna's arrival - he didn't know her well and was not comfortable around strangers in his own home, so he usually prefered to remain out of sight - and even volunteered to keep watch on the live feed while the astromech could power down and recharge his energy cells a bit. Then, upon a sign given by Jaleela, Selan ushered them upstairs and into their bed, with strict orders to rest at least until midnight.


	10. Chapter 10

**_I wish all of you a very merry christmas and an enjoyable time with your loved ones._**

* * *

It was the wee hours of the next day, barely half past one in the morning according to the chrono, when Myn and Kirney found themselves at the foot of the western side of the L-shaped hill, their black clothing merging them with the shadows thrown by the thick undergrowth in which they were currently hiding.

"Com check," he spoke quietly, "Three, do you read?"

 _"Loud and clear,"_ his father's voice came back through the comlink. _"On standby for extraction two blocks away in a dead-end. No activity so far. Four is monitoring the cam and also standard comlink frequencies. Just in case."_

"Affirmative. One out," Myn replied and clicked his back teeth to switch off the comlink channel. Dropping onto his stomach he crawled forward, in between two conveniently planted rows of undergrowth which shielded them from both sides and joined his wife who had brought out her datapad and was running through a series of programs.

"You okay?" he whispered.

Kirney turned to look at him and even though the balaclava hid most of her face he could see the puzzled frown she was sporting. "I'm not picking up _anything_ from that fence."

It was his turn to look puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not picking up any energy readings," Kirney whispered back. "If that fence was connected to some kind of proximity or audio-visual sensors my scan would have registered tiny energy flows. Even a simple anti-breach system should show up. But here I found _nothing_."

"But that's good," he muttered. "Isn't it?"

"I don't know. Maybe they have more powerful sensors placed more centrally where we can't spot them until we're spotted ourselves."

Myn bit his lip, but he had to ask. "Do you want to abort?"

Kirney snorted, quietly that is. "Sith, no. We've come this far, we'll see it through. Get that cutter ready, will you?"

At four meters of height and a very narrow pattern the mesh fence was too high to climb over. Myn reached onto his back and pulled the cutter from the buckle loop he'd used to secure it. "Cover me," he whispered and crawled the last meter towards the fence while Kirney brought up her blaster rifle and rose to a knee. He began clipping the thankfully thin mesh wire about half a meter above the ground, wincing every time the wire gave way with a metallic click, and methodically proceeded to cut just one particular strand until he reached ground level. Because the lower edge of the fence was buried deep in the soil he cut additional strands at ground level to the left and right of his original cut, just half a meter in total, wide enough for them to squeeze through but narrow enough to temporarily seal the hole after they'd crawled through. Not that he feared discovery, because there was a tree growing just behind the fence and its trunk was thick enough both to cast a deep shadow and to shield it from view. Unless someone came looking at this spot specifically chances of spotting the cut were low.

Myn was the first to crawl through the hole. He swung up his blaster rifle and checked the narrow lanes between the stacks of containers to the north and south but then he bolted across the barely lit passage to melt into the deeper shadows thrown by the row of containers facing them. He waved at his wife to follow.

Kirney scrambled through the hole in the fence, but remained on her knees in the shadow of the tree trunk where she used thin strips of wire to temporarily close the gap they'd opened. Once she was done she joined her husband in the shadowy corner.

"So far so good," she whispered and brought her datapad out again. "No ultrasonic spikes, no obvious alarms." Then she stuffed it back into the small satchel she was carrying and pulled the blaster rifle from her back.

Her husband nodded. "Three, we're in. Anything to report?" he asked his father over the comlink.

 _"As quiet as a graveyard,"_ came the terse reply. _"No movement in the north-eastern quadrant."_

"Understood. One, out."

"This way," Kirney muttered pointing towards the southern end of the compound. They moved stealthily, one after the other, from shadow to shadow. The compound itself was as deserted as the late - or rather early - hour suggested but still they remained cautious, suspicious even, and prefered the slow but secure pace of the bounding overwatch they'd chosen. Thankfully the facility was rather small so not even five minutes had passed when they found themselves in yet another shadowy area, a narrow gap between two stacks of containers, separated from the container with the hidden entrance only by a relatively broad but just dimly lit passage used by the cargo haulers for loading or unloading containers during the day.

Just then the com cackled to life. _"Heads up,"_ said Selan. _"The door of the common room has just opened. Two, three, four people emerging."_

"Sithspit," Myn swore and looked around. "We can't stay here and let them move past us," he said gesturing at the somewhat-lit passageway behind them and the barely-lit track ahead of them. "Three, what's their ETA?"

 _"Three, maybe four minutes at best."_

Myn looked at his wife. "Can we get down there?"

Kirney was staring at the area where the access hatch to whatever was below them was hidden. Then she slowly shook her head. "I'd rather not risk it. First I'd have to find the mechanism to open it, then I'll have to find and bypass whatever security they've in there."

"Okay, okay." His forehead wrinkled in concentration. "Then we relocate to a more secure spot and wait them out. I don't want to take them out unless we really, really have to."

"Follow me," Kirney whispered and brushed past him towards the southern end of the compound where the undergrowth had begun to spread inside the fence as well.

They had barely made it to their hideout when voices grew louder from the direction of the south-western corner of the facility.

"I can't see the point," an obviously bored male voice said.

Kirney and Myn shrunk underneath the bushes that were hiding them.

"You want to argue with the boss?" another man returned dryly. "Be my guest."

"No, thank you," the first voice answered and this time it betrayed a serious dose of unease. "But I don't like his tactics, either. First he's had a go at the old fool Solant, and then ..."

The second voice cut him off. "Be quiet, you moron! We're not debating this, not here, not now. Got it?"

"Yeah, okay." The unease of the first speaker was still palpable. "Consider it dropped."

Then the two men were past and disappeared around a corner a short while later.

Myn and Kirney remained motionless in their hideout for another two or three minutes. "Interesting," he whispered. "Solant was mentioned."

His wife nodded, the motion barely visible in the darkness. "Whatever else is going on here seems to be connected to Vhinntar's recent shopping spree."

"Indeed," he agreed before clicking his back teeth to activate the com. "Three, status report."

 _"One patrol is at the central illumigrid pole on the eastern fence. Looks like they're smoking. The cam shows the glowing dots of cigarettes. The other ..."_ The com went silent briefly. _"The other has just moved through a gap between containers in the south-eastern corner and is heading towards the central loading area."_

"Thanks. One out." He closed the comlink channel and looked at his wife. "Seen anything remarkable about these two?"

"Heavy blaster pistols in tigh holsters," she returned quietly. "But no lumas or glowsticks. And their minds were on other things instead of being watchful. Fine with me, but that's not real security."

"Yeah, you won't hear me complaining, either." Then an idea struck him. "And if this _is_ their security strategy?"

Again Kirney's forehead creased in puzzlement. "What do you mean?"

"Remember your surprise at the lack of any kind of sensor grid at the fence? Maybe they're trying to conceal that there may be something unusual about this place by not having any kind of security beyond some patrols at night for show. Maybe this is about hiding in plain sight."

Kirney didn't seem to be fully convinced, though. "So what exactly are they hiding here?"

Getting to his feet he held out a hand to her. "Let's find out."


	11. Chapter 11

**jaeveret - Thank you, I really enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing christmas (and my mother's awesome cooking ;) ).**

 **I wish all of you guys a Happy New Year. May 2017 be better than 2016 was.**

* * *

The hidden entrance to the underground was luckily in another shadowy corner, courtesy of stacked containers and the lighting emitted by a glowlight on a pole a hundred meters away. Myn took a guard position at the corner in case one of the guard patrols appeared, his rifle in his hands and the selection switch set to stun.

It didn't take Kirney long to find the hidden keypad underneath an old cover plate that could be pivoted around one of the screws holding it in place. Bringing out a tool set from a pouch she got to work quietly. First she loosened the latches holding the keypad's cover in place, then she carefully pried it open. She was greeted by the mess of wires and electronics one could expect inside such a device, but her practiced eye quickly discerned that additional security had been added to the system. There was this one additional cable and a small circuit board that weren't standard at all. She brought out her datapad and pulled a Y-cable from another pouch, plugged it into the port of the datapad and clipped the other two ends to the additional cable and the dubious circuit board. Bringing up the datapad's main menu she selected one of the programs she'd loaded onto it and hit execute.

Her husband risked a glance over his shoulder. "How's it going?" he whispered.

"Found some additional wiring," she returned quietly but kept staring at the screen of the datapad. "I'm trying to find out what it does."

"Take your time," he muttered and glanced around the corner. This was, indeed, far too much like the old times. "At least there are no TIE Fighters shooting at us," he muttered to himself, thinking of their adventure on Saffalore all those years ago.

Kirney didn't laugh. "Shhh," she admonished him quietly, her gaze unwaveringly focused on the datapad in her hands. "Just a little more ..." The device emitted a barely audible warble and the progress bar was replaced by the data gathered. Kirney narrowed her eyes as she scrolled through the readout. Finally she smiled to herself.

"Got you," she whispered and unclipped the Y-cable from the keypad's innards. "It's rather simple as far as security goes. First I thought this was some kind of access log connected to a central computer system, but the circuitry is too primitive for that."

Her husband shot her another glance over his shoulder. "So what does it do?"

"It probably merely gives notice that someone is using the keypad, maybe a light flashes in the common room where security is or down below. That kind of notification." She sat the datapad down onto the ground and pulled what looked like a stylus from her toolkit.

"Can you beat it?" Instead of an answer he heard a cackling _zapp_ of frying electronics, once, twice, three times. He tensed, waiting for some kind of alarm to howl. Nothing happened.

"Already done," she answered. "Now it's just the matter of reading out the code and ..." Her voice trailed off as she unplugged the Y-cable and pulled another one from the pouch on her hip. Plugging that into a data port on the main circuitry board she flipped through a number of pages in the main menu in search of yet another of her little helper programs she'd written specifically for Wraith Squadron.

Myn gave a tiny snort. "You should demand license fees from Enn-Are-Eye, seeing how easy this makes it for them to play spook," he quipped.

"This is for my _friends_ ," Kirney returned quietly. "I'm just trying to help them stay alive. And Intel can kiss my shapely rear."

"That's my turf," he shot back with a smirk. "Your rear, I mean."

Kirney didn't look up. "Not now, dear," she muttered evenly and proceeded to store her tools back in the satchel.

"Right." As much fun as their verbal fencing was this was neither the place nor the time.

Kirney's datapad beeped again and a sequence of numbers appeared on the screen. She unplugged the cable and planted the cover back on the keypad's body, snapped the fastenings shut and stuffed the cables back into the pouch.

"We don't know what's behind that hatch," she said as she motioned him over. "So be ready for anything."

He simply raised his rifle and aimed at the door.

Kirney keyed in the code sequence. Upon entering the fifth number the lock emitted a small metallic _clack_ and the hatch sprang open a hair with a faint groan. Myn winced, the quiet noises seemed insanely loud in the silence of the night, but again there was no howling alarm, no guards came running to investigate. He pushed the muzzle of his blaster into the gap and pried it open with the tip of his boot. There was darkness ahead, a darkness that was tempered by a faint glow far in the distance.

"Three, we've got the hatch open," Kirney whispered into her comlink. "We're going in now."

 _"Copy that, Two,"_ came the answer. _"Be careful."_

"We will be," she replied. "Two, out."

Myn went in first, finding himself at the top of a long flight of stairs leading down into an unknown structure. Thankfully the faint light ahead outlined enough contours for them to do without the glowsticks Myn had taped to the sides of their blaster's barrels.

"That's pretty deep," Kirney whispered as she closed the hatch behind them. "I make that more than twenty meters below surface."

"Put your back against the wall and move sideways. That way we won't silouette if someone comes this way," he advised quietly.

At the bottom of the stairs they found themselves in front of a massive door that was wide open, revealing a room roughly twenty meters in length that ended in another door of the same caliber - and just as wide open as this one.

Myn pressed himself into the corner of the door's massive jamb and tilted his head just enough to look around it. He saw nothing but the glow ahead was getting stronger. "Looks like some kind of air lock," he whispered as he estimated the width of that door. "And those doors are _massive_."

"And old. So what is this place?" his wife whispered.

He shrugged. "No idea. Let's move on."

They felt their way through the semi-darkness of the room and the corridor that followed it. It ended at a T-junction, the right turn leading into total blackness, the left one revealing a half-lit room of some dimension. And there was the sound of rustling plastoid bags, of clinking glass and something else they couldn't quite make out.

Myn pressed his back against the wall and spied around the corner. The light seemed to come from the left side of his room, outside his field of vision, but he noticed the black shapes of cargo on small palettes ahead. He waved Kirney forward and traded places with her. "We'll move into cover behind those palettes," he whispered into her ear. "Let's see what we're dealing with."

He saw her nod, barely discernable in the darkness, then she crouched and carefully made her way into the room and behind the first palette. Myn waited until she signaled him to follow, then he copied her movements, concentrating on not making noise. But when he raised his head above the upper edge of the paletted freight he felt his eyebrows wander towards the hairline.

The room they were finding themselves in was roughly fifty meters long and wide, the floor was of the same dull ferrocrete as the corridor behind them had been, but the walls were now tiled. Dirt, rust and other sediments discoloured what had to have been once pristine white tiles, revealing the age of the complex. On the far side of the room a row of five glowlights spent muted illumination that didn't even reach halfway across but nicely silouetted the rows of tables and the six droids which where packing small vials into larger plastoid bags and then into sturdy plasteel cylinders.

Myn found his attention was more on the room itself as he had the impression of having seen such an installation before. And then the credit dropped. He felt his eyes widen. "I know what this place is."

His wife gestured him to go on.

"This is an ancient air raid shelter," he whispered. "And I mean _ancient_."

One of her eyebrows wandered upwards. "How ancient?"

"Centuries, at least. We've had trouble with pirate gangs or other lowlifes who preyed on settlements here for a long long time. And about four hundred years ago the selonian Afarathu sect staged raids on Corellia time and time again until they were finally destroyed," he explained quietly. "At that time most communities had their own air raid shelters where the populations could seek refuge during such attacks."

"I see." Kirney rose slightly and stuck her head above the palette she was hiding behind. "What are those droids doing?"

Myn also rose and squinted to make out more details. "They're packaging something. Vials of some sort, but I can't see what they contain," he whispered.

Kirney didn't answer. Instead the pulled her rifle off her shoulder, putting it onto the floor as quietly as she could and then did the same to the satchel. Before Myn could ask what she was doing she was already scrambling towards the closest row of tables.

"Two," he hissed in exasperation but she made no indication of having heard him. "Sithspit!"

A few seconds later she was back behind the palettes, holding two items in her hands. "At least we know where the money came from," she muttered and Myn felt his scalp tighten and the blood drained from his face. The plastoid bag contained pills of some sort but the other was a small vial with tiny flakes glittering golden in the dim light. It couldn't be mistaken for anything else, there was only one thing in the galaxy with that particular look. It was spice.

" _Kriff!_ "

"Yeah," she agreed and shook the vial, making the flakes dance within. "This changes everything."

"What do you mean?"

"This is no longer merely about getting our Jar," said Kirney. "We've got to take down this organization as well. Because if we don't they'll be back at Jar's throat in no time."

Myn shook his head. Surely he must have misunderstood her. "All by ourselves?"

"Of course not." His wife shook her head as well. "I mean we've got to gather as much intel on them as we can and then tip off the authorities to what's happening here. Anonymously, that is."

"So we've got to look for some computer terminal of sorts for you to slice in," he guessed.

"Yes, but first we're going to record what those droids are doing." She pulled out her datapad again, set it to recording mode but disabled audio capture and lifted it over the top edge of the palette she was hiding behind. She froze ... "Hear that?"

Myn raised his head and stilled. And yes, there was a faint rumble ... and it was getting louder quickly.

Kirney pointed at the far side of the room, at the pitch black rectangle of another corridor. A faint glow was getting stronger by the second parallel to the increasing noise. She placed the datapad atop the palette so that it could record and then ducked down back into cover.


	12. Chapter 12

The glow morphed into a pair of headlights and the rumble belonged to what looked like an an ancient auxiliary freight monorail as it slid into the underground room. The growl of engines died along with the two cones of light. The two of them, both sitting behind the palettes with their backs pressed against their covers, shared a look and then moved to spy around the corner.  
The monorail wasn't long, just three short cargo wagons plus a control unit at each end, and it was empty but for the three people which were now dismounting. One, a burly human, picked up a datapad from a table and began scanning through some list of sorts. Then he pointed at a short row of small-sized cargo containers on the other side of the rail.

"That's the shipment for Balmorra," he told his sidekicks, a Rodian and a Duros. "Get started. I'll log the pickup, then I'll help."

The Rodian chattered something in his native language which neither Myn nor Kirney understood.

"The _Jewel_ is supposed to take off at six o'clock in the morning," the man returned patiently. "So yes, we've got some time but not enough to dawdle. I want this shipment aboard and stowed before that. Got that?"

"Yes, we get it," the Duros threw in and moved to a deactivated lifter droid. "Come on, Clezz, and help me load this stuff."

The Rodian stood frozen in his spot for a second, seemingly debating whether to press the issue or not, before his shoulders sagged and he followed the Duros to another lifter droid on standby.

"Good boy," the human mocked quietly and moved towards the side of the room where Myn and Kirney were hiding. Both dropped to the floor quietly, but to their great relief he took a turn towards the other corner, entered what looked like another unlit corridor and opened a door. A second later a luma was switched on inside a separate and much smaller room they hadn't seen so far, separated from the one they were in by a permaglass window. Then the glow inside changed colours, shifting more towards blue when a holoprojector came to life.

Myn slid backwards on his stomach to join his wife. "Convenient," he whispered and gestured at the other side of the room. "Looks like an office of some sort."

Kirney cast a glance at the two beings at the far side of the room, but the noise generated by the two lifter droids would drown out any other noises. "Indeed," she agreed. "It seems this is some kind of distribution center for the spice and the other drugs." She paused briefly. "How many of those old bunkers still exist?"

He shrugged. "Impossible to say. Once there must have been thousands. Nobody knows how many still exist."

The holoprojector inside the tiny office went out followed by the luma and Myn put a finger to his lips. The burly man emerged scratching a spot on the back of his head and moved to join his two compatriots in loading the containers onto the monorail.

The Rodian, who held the control pad of one lifter droid in his hands, looked at the unperturbed droids packaging another load of drugs into the plasteel cylinders and said something but the creaking of the third lifter droid picking up one of the containers drowned him out.

"Oh, don't worry," the human replied mock cheerfully. "Those droids have minimal programming. All they can do is package the stuff. They've got no audio or visual sensors nor any capability to communicate." There was another groan of metal and a heavy _thump_ when the lifter droid he was controlling placed the container on the monorail carriage. "All they can do is scan the labels on the vials, the bags and the packaging to check what goes where. This way they don't accidently record incriminating data for law enforcement to find."

The Rodian seemed placated and continued his work without any more utterings. It was an efficient operation for the three of them were done within another minute. The human swung himself behind the controls of the unit facing towards the corridor from which they had emerged, the duros seated himself in the other chair of the control unit while the Rodian went to the back of the train and took a seat there.

"Hang on tight, boys," the human called as he gunned the engine. A few seconds later the now heavily loaded monorail set in motion and disappeared into the darkness of the corridor ahead of it.

The two interlopers waited for another minute before both rose from behind cover. Kirney picked up her datapad and switched off the recording. "Since those droids can't detect our presence I'm going to make a better recording of what they are doing. Better stuff for PSS, you know," she said no longer resorting to whispering as they had before.

"Good idea," her husband agreed. Then he gestured at the bagged pills and the vial with the spice she'd dropped onto the top of the palette. "Want to keep that as evidence?"

"No." She shook her head. "Imagine we're stopped by some random PSS patrol. How could we explain _this_? I'll put it back to where it came from."

He nodded in agreement. "I'll better call Three. He must be getting antsy by now." He watched for a moment as she methodically went from table to table, recording what she saw before he turned away and went back to the corridor outside the air lock. "Three, this is One. Do you copy?"

 _"Finally,"_ his father's tinny voice came through his earpiece, the signal weakened and distorted by the ferrocrete and soil around him. _"I was wondering if you'd forgotten about me. Your signal is a bit weak but I can read you fine."_

"Three, there has been an _unforseen development_ , nothing I'd want to discuss via comlink, though. It'll take a little longer than expected."

 _"Affirmative,"_ Selan returned but even with the comlink distortion Myn could hear the curiosity in his voice. _"Still nothing unusual aboveground."_

"Keep watching," he advised. "We'll report back once we locate and extract the package. One, out."  
He moved back into the big room with the packaging droids and found his wife copying the content of the datapad the burly human had studied just a few minutes ago. "You done?"

Kirney nodded. "In here, yes. I've recorded the droids packaging the stuff and I've taken holos of any freight label I could find. Now let's take a look at the office."

Keeping in line with the virtually non-existant security of the place the office was neither locked nor connected to a security system in any way. To her surprise she felt a certain professional resentment as this was far too easy and she had to remind herself to take solace in not having to work against much better security at a considerably higher risk. But when she switched on the holoprojector, they hadn't bothered with the luma, she did let out a growl of wounded professional pride. "You've got to be kidding!"

Myn gave her a perplexed look. "What is it?"

She didn't turn to look at him. Instead she huffed indignantly. "The moron didn't even sign out of the system, he just switched off the holoprojector. I don't need to slice anything, I am already in."

"But that's good, isn't it?"

"I've seen _crèches_ with better security procedures than this," Kirney growled and let her fingers dance across the keyboard. "I'm wondering how this level of sloppiness works for someone who smuggles drugs."

He pondered the question for a moment and had to agree that it didn't really match what they'd seen in the larger room. Running spice was one of the most serious criminal offenses in pretty much any legal code, but it was one of the most profitable businesses known, too. Which meant the risks were enormous due to active opposition from both law enforcement and competitors. Which would, or should, necessitate some serious and painstaking security procedures. "Maybe they just have become sloppy," he guessed. "This thing must have been running for years and years already without being detected. Any security will degrade over time when it isn't challenged from without or supervised properly from within."

"True," she agreed but kept her eyes fixed on the holo projection. Suddenly she threw her hands up in exasperation. "Oh, really? This is such a joke." She didn't give him time for an answer, though. "This account has _administrative access_. I can access _everything_ and do pretty much anything to sabotage them."

Myn put a hand on her shoulder and waited for her to look at him. "Keep your cool," he advised gently. "I know it hurts your sense of professionalism but we're not here to give them a security system. Remember?"

His wife took a deep breath to steady herself. "Okay."

"So, what now?" he asked, attempting to gently prod her back into the mission mindset.

Kirney pondered the question for a few seconds. "Since we have access to pretty much any database connected to this terminal I don't think the disk space of my datapad will be enough to copy everything. But we don't have the time to sift through it all and copy only the relevant parts." She remained silent for a moment again, then he heard her click her back teeth to open a comlink channel. "Four, this is Two. If you can read me communicate via my datapad."

The tiny screen lit up with Tonin's reply. _[I read you.]_

"Check signal integrity and strength. Is it sufficient for large-scale data transfers?"

The droid's reply took a moment. _[Signal integrity and strength sufficient but barely so.]_

"Affirmative, Four. How much of your internal memory is unused at this time?"

 _[Six hundred and seventy-four point five oh nine three petabyte.]_

Kirney gave a satisfied nod at herself. "Good. I am going to link this datapad to a computer terminal. We have administrative level access to their system. Ready for tasking?"

 _[Affirmative.]_

"Task one: Find any references to the package we're here to extract, copy all of it as well as any links, documents, cross references and especially communication logs. Once done, delete any of the mentioned files from their systems or, if you can't delete them outright, scramble them so they can't be recovered."

 _[Understood.]_

"Task two: Comb through their network and databases for any evidence of large-scale criminal activity centered upon Vhinntar Shipping and this facility here. Put together a nice big data package for law enforcement."

 _[Understood.]_

"Okay, third and final task: Once you're done erase any traces of access to the network from this terminal. The timeframe for this is between five minutes ago and whenever you're finished."

 _[I copy.]_

She fished the data cable out of her satchel again and plugged it into both the datapad and the computer terminal. "Datapad is linked. Get to work, Four. Two, out." She left the datapad on the chair and turned to her husband. "We have a package to find, One. Let's do that."

The corridor ran in a straight line but its end was lost in the darkness beyond the short range of the glowsticks taped to the barrels of their blaster rifles. Every ten meters or passages so led into smaller rooms that, judging by the heaps of rusted metal and decayed furniture inside, must have been used as medical posts, kitchen or communal bedrooms to house those fleeing from the raids above. But at the end of the corridor there was one old-fashioned door, not a powered one that was standard these days but the really old stuff with hinges, and that one was locked.  
Kirney looked at the low-tech nightmare of a thick metal bar secured with a massive padlock which kept the door closed and shook her head. It was really old school stuff, a real metal key was needed to open it. Unless, of course, you knew how to prod it into cooperation with the help of tools. "Is it just me or are we hitting every sithspawned stereotype of _'dumb criminals'_ tonight?"

Myn shrugged and lifted his rifle to provide her with more light. "Can you crack it?" he asked, intentionally ignoring her question.

"Sure." She reached into her satchel to pull out the toolkit once again. Selecting two thin stylus-like devices the went into a squat and peered at the padlock. "It may take a moment, though."  
Using the twin tools in her hands she tried to pick the lock, but it was slow going. Three times she caught the edge of the mechanism keeping it closed only to have her tool slide off. The fourth time the stylus got a secure grip, she twisted it around and the lock yielded.

The room behind the door was just as small as the office at the other end of the corridor had been. It was bare but for a chair and the person bound to it. It was Jarrath. He was not looking at them, his chin rested on his breastbone, his head tilted ever so slightly to the left.

"Sithspit," Myn swore and moved inside. He swung his rifle onto his back and drew the vibroblade from its forearm sheath. Jarrath's captors had used simple cable ties to fix him to the chair and as he slid his blade underneath the tie binding Jarrath's right hand to the chair's armrest he couldn't help but notice the unnatural white colour of his friend's hand.

In the meantime his wife had pulled back Jarrath's head, but he didn't react to that, either. "He's unconscious," she declared and produced a tiny luma from a pouch. Peeling back one of his eyelids she shone it into his eyes and watched the reaction of the pupil. "Looks like he's been sedated."

"Just as well," Myn muttered darkly and gestured at Jarrath's right leg. There was an unnatural bump in the middle of the shin, a sure sign of a broken bone.

"Oh Jar," Kirney said quietly and gently pushed some of his unkempt hair out of his face. "What have they done to you?"

"We can't leave the way we came in," said Myn as he cut open the last cable tie. "Not with Jarrath unconscious."

His wife turned to look at him and he saw an eyebrow arching upwards. "I'm not sure it would be wise to take on all those guards, either."

He shook his head. "I wasn't thinking of gunning them down. Remember that T-junction just after the air lock? I bet that's an alternative bolt hole."

"You sure?"

"No, but it would make sense from the tactical perspective. The main entrance is easily defensible, but it would not make sense to get bottled up in a room without an alternative escape."

"What about that monorail?"

"Possibly, but who knows how long that tunnel really is. No, I was thinking of something far closer ... like that factory ruin next door."

"Of course," she breathed as understanding dawned in her eyes. "Let's get going. I want Jar in a Medcenter as soon as possible."

"Me, too," he agreed and moved to pick up his unconscious friend. Clicking his back teeth he opened a com channel. "Three, come in."

" _Three here._ "

"Change of plans," Myn grunted as he hoisted Jarrath over his shoulder. "The package is immobile and unconscious. We've got to recce an alternative exit."

" _Need any help?_ "

"Negative. We suspect an alternative escape inside that ruined factory next door. We'll report in once we know more. One, out."

"Just three things left to do," said Kirney. "No, four things. I check whether Four is finished and pick up my datapad, we get out of here, I and Four are being dropped off at a public com terminal and then you get Jar to a Medcenter."

"You got an idea where to send the data to?" he grunted with the effort of keeping the unconscious Jarrath balanced on his shoulder.

Kirney slid the door close behind him and clicked the padlock into place. "I'll simply save myself the time and effort and send everything to Rostek Horn. He'll know where to go."

"Good idea. Go see if Four is finished and then let's get the Sith out of here."


	13. Chapter 13

**This is already the last part of the regular story, next week we'll see the epilogue. Thanks for all who have read. I hope it was enjoyable.  
**

* * *

It was late afternoon of the fourth day after they had rescued Jarrath from his captors. The two of them sat in the waiting area of Coronet Central Medcenter, two empty pasteboard cups with remnants of the awful Medcenter caf on the low table in front of them.  
Their escape from the underground facility had gone unnoticed as Myn's hunch of the bunker having an alternative escape had paid off. The dark corridor behind the T-junction had led them into the ruined factory hall next door, the escape hatch itself concealed underneath a fake heap of scrap metal. After dropping off Kirney and Tonin he and his father had brought Jarrath to the Medcenter under the pretense of having found him beaten to a pulp in one of the many dark alleys of _Treasureship Row_ , a lie the PSS officer brought in to investigate thankfully had been keen to swallow.

Myn stretched and let out the yawn that had been building up over some time.

"Want more caf?" Kirney asked, her voice revealing that she was just as tired as he was.

He gave her a weary grin. "If you find some real caf here, yes. But please no more of that dishwater they mistakenly sell as caf. I'd like to live a while longer."

His wife rolled her eyes. "When's Denna due back?"

That drew a smirk. "I'd half-expected her to be back at noon. I mean we basically had to threaten her with sedation to get her out of that room. She hadn't left his side for the last three days."  
Jarrath had been floating in low-temp Bacta, courtesy of the numerous injuries to various internal organs, but had been pulled from the tank just this noon for the surgical procedure to fix his broken shin. Once that was done he'd have spend a few more days in Bacta again.

"If it was me in there, would you leave voluntarily?" Kirney asked softly.

Myn snorted. "You'd have to shoot me with a stun bolt and drag my unconscious carcass out of there," he retorted.

"Good to know, dear," she returned softly and placed a kiss on his lips. "Can you believe what she told us this morning?"

Myn frowned. "It's hard to believe. But this is Jar we're talking about." He shrugged. "It's not totally out of question, either. I just can't believe that Tonin let her have the access codes to Jar's computer and didn't let us know."

Kirney smiled. "He's had enough experience with emotionally distraught humans. I guess he knows when to cut corners." Her smile died. "What will we do about that?"

"It's for him to decide, but I may speak about it once he's conscious again."

Her eyes widened. "Is that wise?"

"He needs the unvarnished truth shoved right in his face," said Myn. "Wedge didn't pull any punches on me, I'm not going to coddle Jar, either."

"Remember, he's scheduled for surgery. Don't be too hard on him."

"I know," he placated and put an arm around her shoulder. "But he can't evade me here, he can't stop me from telling him the things he doesn't want to hear, things he doesn't want to acknowledge. I don't know if we ever get a better chance."

Kirney looked up at the holoscreen hanging from the wall. There was no sound, the Medcenter staff had switched off the audio, but they didn't need it to recite most of the reporting word for word. The scene playing on the screen was familiar already - heavily armed troopers of PSS' Anti-Narcotics Unit were standing guard at the front gate of the storage facility they had extracted Jarrath from, a load of forensic technicians bustling about to secure whatever evidence could be unearthed. "Amazing that this has been on the news for days already. Is the galaxy suddenly at peace and I haven't noticed it?"

"Given the implications," her husband returned quietly, "I'm not really astonished. Two district governors of Coronet City implicated by the evidence you handed over? That was always going to be a kick in the guts for Micamberlecto. There's already enough grumbling over Corellia having joined the New Republic within some quarters as it is and that one is going to cause quite a stir." The scene in the news switched to yet another familiar episode, a stony-faced and handcuffed Josar Vhinntar being manhandled into a PSS speeder and yet another load of security types swarming all over the company's HQ. "Have you taken a look at the rest of the data Tonin managed to get, yet?"

"Only bits and pieces," she admitted quietly, "but it looks like a lot of that could be of interest for General Cracken as well, even though I guess he'll receive it through official channels, too. At some point, that is. There are lots of names, locations and code phrases. Could be that we got the whole of their networks implicated by that data. I'll transmit the package to Face as soon as I get off-world again."

She fell silent as a human female, clad in the habitual white and green of the Medcenter staff, approached them. "I beg your pardon, gentlebeings, but your friend is awake."

Myn smiled. "Thank you. Can we see him?"

"A few minutes." The medtech gave them an encouraging smile. "He's very tired, but one of you can see him."

He looked at his wife who nodded and gave a little friendly shove. "Go in there. I need to visit the refresher, anyway. And then I'll wait here in case Denna shows up."

Kirney waited until the door closed behind her husband before getting to her feet. She had an appointment with one of the doc droids, one she hoped would clear up the weird feeling in her stomach she'd been having of late. It was probably nothing and not wanting Myn to become worried she'd kept it to herself.

Jarrath's room was eerily silent save for the slight buzz of the air scrubbers and the hum of the diagnostic equipment. He looked pale, partially because of the off-white medical gown he'd been given to wear, partially because of the sickly colour of his skin.

"Myn." Jarrath's voice was a throaty croak. "Undo those straps please. I've got to get out of here. I've got work ..."

"Finish that sentence and you'll have another dent in that thick skull of yours." The venom in Myn's voice throttled whatever Jarrath had wanted to say. "You are in a Medcenter for a reason, you _Slizhak_ , don't give me that poodoo or I'll add a few more reasons for you being in here."

Jarrath gaped at him. "What are you saying?"

Myn forced himself to open his right hand which he had clenched into a fist. "We told them to keep you strapped to that bed all the time. Said you would most likely be unreasonable and try to get out of here."

"Who is we?"

"Me, my wife and Denna."

Jarrath paled even further. "How could you?"

Anger flared like a spark hitting starship fuel and he took an involuntary step towards the bed. "Because I knew someone would have to knock some common sense into that soggy mess of a failure you refer to as your brain," he hissed. "Do you really think you can deceive all of us for good? I know you are trying hard to deceive yourself, but did you really think you could keep this charade up for all eternity?"

The look he received from his friend was one of bewilderment. "What are you talking about?"

"I am talking about that little _'incredible stretch of bad luck'_ , as you put it so eloquently when we met on the Spaceport. Be proud of your ability to lie, Jarrath Lund. You seem to have mastered it." Jarrath opened his mouth to respond but Myn cut him off with a swipe of his hand. "Don't bother. We all know the truth. We know of your financial problems, maybe even more than you do. If we hadn't been so busy over the past months we would have found out much earlier."

His friend managed a glare. "That's my life. Stay out of it."

"Oh, really?" He threw that glare right back at Jarrath. "So you were aware that you'd have been obligated to declare bancruptcy months ago?"

Jar shot him a puzzled stare. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, so you didn't even know yourself?" Myn mocked. "Denna went through your financial records. You were bancrupt three months ago at the very latest. You know what this means? Ever heard of _delayed filing of insolvency_? Look it up in the criminal code. It's right there in the financial crimes section."

"Denna did _what_?" Jar croaked in total surprise.

Myn shrugged. "She went through your financial records. We didn't even know she had access to them until she told us of her findings this morning." He didn't say a word about Tonin having given her the codes to access the data. There was no need to implicate the astromech.

"Oh Sith!" Jarrath dropped back onto the cushion, his face contorting into a mask of worry and grief.

Myn's voice softened. "Jarrath, I am talking to you this way because I know what you are doing to yourself. I have been there, I have been in your place."

"Don't assume," his friend returned but he couldn't quite manage the defiance he wanted to impart. Instead it came out weakly, tearfully.

"I don't need to assume, Jar. I know what it is like to wrap yourself into a web of lies so tightly that you suffocate yourself. I tried to mold myself into the role-model soldier I thought i needed to be so that my father could be proud of me," said Myn. "I pretended to be someone I wasn't so hard, that I totally forgot about figuring out who really I was. It nearly cost me the chance to be with my wife, Jar. I almost lost Kirney because of my stubborn refusal to see that the problem was me and that I needed help."

Jarrath managed a weak smirk. "I was never a soldier."

"No, you weren't. But I know what kind of ethics and values your father tried to imprint on you. And I see what they are doing to you."

"What do you mean?"

Myn sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I know the kind of movement your parents are members of. Really old school, go back to the days of the settlers, self-sufficiency, self-reliance. And so on."

"Nothing wrong with that," his friend croaked weakly, his eyes darting to the cup with water on the bedside table.

Myn took the cup and helped Jarrath take a sip. "Careful there, Jar. Don't overdo it or 2-1B will have my hide." He lowered him back onto the cushion. "No, on their own they're nothing to worry about. But you, my friend, have tried so hard to live up to them I was wondering if you were still trying to impress your father."

That drew a snort. "My father couldn't care less."

"I know. But your father isn't here and yet you behave as if he were standing right behind you, looking at every move, criticizing you for every decision you make." Myn hesitated. "Jar, were you trying to prove that you could support a family?"

Jarrath's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"

"I looked up the group your parents belong to on the Holonet," Myn admitted. "I know some of the stuff they teach." He gave his friend a pointed look. "In particular their adherence to the old probation time for couples who want to marry."  
In ancient times, in the first decades and centuries after Corellia had been settled, the harsh nature and the problematic economic situation of many settlements had led to failures of many farms with many families being forced into homelessness and abject poverty. Many village councils had reacted strongly to those developments by withholding the permission to marry and start a family until the man could prove he could actually run a farm and support a family. Over time this emergency procedure had taken on a life of its own, had become a tradition which some arch-conservative groups were trying to bring back - along with all kinds of isolationist and xenophobic beliefs - in order to mold the modern Corellia into the planet they thought their ancestors had imagined. Jarrath's parents were members of such a group and they had tried to instill the same beliefs in their children.

"You think so?" The defiance and contrariness had gone out of Jarrath's voice. In its stead Myn could hear wonder and curiosity.

"I know you love Denna," he affirmed. "And I know she loves you. It doesn't take much to put two and two together."

"Of course I love her." The reply was very quiet, amost inaudible. The tears in Jarrath's eyes, however, were impossible to miss.

"Then don't push her away. And stop trying to convince yourself that you don't deserve her. Let her be the judge on that one."

"Where is she? Can I see her?"

"We forced her to go home for a shower, sleep and food that isn't Medcenter food," Myn said with a smirk. "She almost refused. She's been here for three days straight." When he noted Jarrath's eyelids grow heavy he put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "I'll let you sleep. We'll stay outside until Denna arrives."

Kirney was sitting on on the couch where he'd left her, but her gaze was strangely unfocused as she stared off into some private distance.

"Hey," he said softly as he slid onto the couch beside her. "You okay?"

She smiled at him. "I'm fine. How did it go?"

He thought about that for a moment. "I hope I got through that thick head of his. In the end he was certainly not as contrary as in the beginning."

"That's good, isn't it?"

"I hope so." He shrugged. "He'll have to make decisions and deal with the bancruptcy, but if he does it right he'll have Denna help him."

Kirney put her head on his shoulder and let out a small sigh. "There's hope for him. That's all we can ask for."

"Yeah." He put his arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. "When I came out of Jar's room," he said softly, "you had this far-away look in your eyes. Anything you wish to tell me?"

She extricated herself from his embrace and sat up to look at him. "I've got a confession to make. I wasn't totally honest with you."

A sliver of worry wormed its way into his thoughts. "What are you talking about?"

Kirney grimaced. "When I told you to go and see Jar it wasn't because I needed to go to the refresher," she admitted. "I had an appointment with one of the doc droids."

The worry in his expression grew. "You're okay, aren't you?"

She smiled at that. It was a goofy smile, full of elation, disbelief and wonder. "Don't worry, I'm fine." She produced a flimsi and held it out for him to read. "I was just wondering if there was a girl's name you'd like."

Myn's brain was too befuddled to fully grasp the meaning of her words but he took the flimsi and read what was printed there.

 _Subject: Human female  
Test Req: Pregnancy  
Result: Confirmed - aprox 230 standard days to completion  
_ _G/S Fetus: 99.754% accuracy for female/single_

It took a few seconds for understanding to worm its way through the layers of bewilderment. Suddenly he felt his eyes pop out of the skull. "You're pregnant?"

Kirney gave a nod but she kept watching him nervously.

"I thought ..." He took a deep breath to steady his nerves. "I thought you were on repress meds."

"I was," she admitted, then sighed. "But with all those additional jobs of late, the feverish work pace ..." Kirney grimaced. "I ran out of the meds and totally forgot to get a new prescription."

"Oh." He made a quick mental calculation. "So you're six weeks along?"

"Yeah." A shadow of dark amusement appeared on her face as she grinned at him. "Must have been that enthusiastic reunion after you came back from Aargau."

Myn felt his face redden. "Or it could have been the welcome party you threw after you returned from that transport job to Dorumaa," he threw back at her and watched her blush at the memory.

They both stared at each other for a second, then burst out laughing. Myn hugged his wife tightly. "I love you," he whispered into her hair.

"What are we going to do about our business?" Kirney asked, ever the pragmatist.

"I don't know," he admitted quietly. To his surprise he wasn't worried, though, unlike all the times when he had pondered the implications of parenthood in the preceeding months. Back then he'd spent considerable time wondering what having a child would do to them, to their company and how they'd cope with it. But now that he was going to be a father ... none of those worries mattered anymore. And he even knew why. "All I know is that we'll make it. I don't know what we'll do, yet, but I am absolutely certain that we'll find a way. It's what life is about, isn't it?" A new thought struck him, one that made him grin like an idiot. He pulled back a little from their embrace, but kept his arms on the shoulders of his wife. "I've just realized that there is one more advantage to this."

Kirney looked at him curiously. "Really?"

"Yeah." His grin got even wider, if that was possible at all. "We can finally give my parents a definite date when they ask when we're going to have children of our own."

Kirney blinked in suprise, then burst out laughing. He joined her laughter as he pulled her back into his embrace.


	14. Epilogue

**That's it - the Epilogue. The journey is over (for now), maybe I'll get back to writing at some point. Thanks for reading (and lurking). Have a nice weekend, fellas.  
**

* * *

 _ **Epilogue  
Nine months later**_

It was a bright sunny morning and thankfully not too hot despite the summer high that had taken residence above Coronet City weeks ago and showed no signs of moving. Jaleela stood in the kitchen peeling tubers for the stew she was going to make for lunch, humming along the tune emitted by the music player.

Her son wandered into the kitchen, his eyes still half-closed, the dark rings under them very pronounced and poured himself a cup of caf. "Mornin'," he mumbled. Then a yawn took over.

Jaleela smiled warmly. "Morning, Myn." She knew the source of her son's tiredness, it was currently asleep in her crib in the upper story. Ever since the little hellion named Alina Donos had come into their lives a little less than a month ago there had been no full night's rest for her parents, for the young lady seemed to take a delighted pleasure in disrupting the usual sleep patterns with multiple nightly demands for attention, feedings or a change of diapers. Because the pregnancy had taken a lot out of Kirney her husband had volunteered to take over the nightly duties to give her a chance at recuperating from the ordeal, not knowing what exactly he was getting into.  
Jaleela couldn't help but compare the experience with that of her son's own infancy. That little girl was certainly not like her father, she realized ruefully, remembering the relatively unproblematic nature of Myn's first months. He'd been a quiet baby who'd barely caused a fuzz, slept most of the time and had been surprisingly easy to handle. No, Alina Donos was certainly not taking after him and Jaleela had the distinct feeling that her granddaughter was going to give her son gray hairs well before his time.

Myn let out a small groan and pressed the balls of his hands into his eyes.

"You don't need to be awake," she gently reminded him. "You can go back to bed."

He just waved her off. "I wouldn't be able to sleep much, anyway. I think I'll take a nap after lunch, though."

She eyed him for a second. "Want to know what helped me back then? Ice-cold shower. That always made me wake up fast."

He actually shuddered at the thought. "Thanks, but I think I'll pass."

"Wimp," she shot back jokingly before changing the topic. "Where's Kirney?"

"Upstairs in the office," he returned. "She's talking to Jar via the Holonet."

"How is that working out?" Jaleela asked, refering to Jar working for DonoSlane Excursions as a freelance pilot after his own transport company had been closed due to insolvency. None of them knew how he'd managed to circumvent being condemned for the much delayed declaration of bancruptcy, but they hadn't pried and Jarrath hadn't been willing to share details, either. The only thing they knew for certain was that Denna had helped him, their relationship had recovered from the strains of the time before Jarrath's abduction and had grown stronger as well.

Her son took another sip of his caf. "Surprisingly well," he admitted. "I know it still pains Jar not to be his own boss, but that little plan Kirney and Denna put together seems to be to his liking. I mean, Kirney isn't going to fly on a regular base for a few months, so he's quite content to take the _Fair Trade_ and do some work in the meantime."

Jaleela's eyes twinkled in amusement. "And Kolot, too?"

"The two of them have known each other for a few years already." Myn shrugged. "I don't think it's going to be much of a problem." A smirk drifted on his face. "As long as Jar understands who's boss in the cockpit, that is."

His mother choked off a laugh. "I'm sure Kolot will make sure he understands." The chime of the door announcer rang through the house and Jaleela arched an eyebrow. As her son moved to stand she gestured at him to remain seated. "I'll take it," she said, her tone not allowing for objection, and moved out of the kitchen.

When she opened the front door she came to face two people whose faces were hauntingly familiar - Jaleela was sure she'd seen them before - but for some reason she couldn't quite place them. Both were human, one male and one female, and both were wearing big smiles. "Yes, please?"

"Mrs. Donos," the raven-haired man answered and held out his hand. "I'm Garik Loran, this is Shalla Nelprin. We're friends of your son and daughter-in-law." He hesitated for a brief moment as there was no spark of recognition on Jaleela's face. "We met at your son's wedding, remember?"

Her eyes opened wide. "Of course," Jaleela breathed and reached for his outstretched hand to shake it. Loran surprised her, though, when he placed an old-fashioned courteous kiss on the back of her hand. She felt her cheeks redden.

The dark-skinned woman rolled her eyes but her smile never wavered. "You're such a charmer, Face."

"Come in, please." Jaleela stepped aside to let them in. "Wait here. I'm going to get Myn."

It really was just a moment later that Myn wandered out of the kitchen sporting a look of curiosity that turned to surprised delight when he recognized his old friends. "I'll be sat on by a Hutt," he exclaimed and opened his arms wide. "What are you two doing here?"

Shalla was first to embrace him, Face followed closely. "We've been appointed the Squadron's official envoys and spies," Loran said lightly, his tone a mix of joking and honesty. "We've been tasked with congratulating the two of you on the new arrival and satisfying the squad's demand for new holos of the three of you." He held Myn at arms length, noting the dark rings under his eyes and smirked. "Looks like Daddy hasn't got much sleep of late, has he?"

"Ignore him," Shalla advised gently. "He was teasing Kell mercilessly when Doran had just been born."

"Are you going to keep them standing in the anteroom?" Jaleela asked, leaning against the doorjamb of the kitchen, arms crossed and wearing a smirk.

Her son grinned sheepishly, then gestured at the other passage that led to the living room. "Make yourself at home," he said. "I'll get Kirney."

It wasn't long, in fact the two visitors had barely managed to take place on the couch, before the sound of someone storming down the flight of stairs to the upper story thundered through the house. Kirney barged into the living room at break-neck speed, skidded to a stop and stared at her two friends. "Are you real?" she asked as she drew Face into a rib-crunching embrace. "Are you really here?

Face laughed and held her close. "No, you're imagining things, you-who-looks-like-Kirney."

"Don't listen to him," Shalla interjected as she drew Kirney out of Face's arms and into a much gentler hug. "He's just being his usual silly self." She withdrew slightly and studied the redhead intently. "You're looking good, a bit tired but good. Motherhood seems to agree with you."

Kirney smiled. "It does. It's not all Daruvian Champagne and Selonian Oysters, but we couldn't be happier."

"So where is the new arrival? Could we be graced with her presence?"

Myn snorted as he sauntered into the living room but softened it with a smile. "We just got her to sleep and believe me, that's a blissful, blissful state for as long as it lasts. You'll have to be patient but I bet it won't be too long before _Her Royal Highness_ let's us know that she demands her humble servants' attention." The smile widened into a mischievious grin which he directed at his wife. "And given how _someone_ barged down the stairs I was half expecting her to make her _displeasure_ known."

Shalla arched an eyebrow. "The little one's a bit of a handful, eh? Well, then let's use the time she allows us mere mortals and talk."

They sat down on the couch and the two armchairs. "So," Face began and pulled a small satchel from his shoulder. "As I told Myn we're the Squadron's envoys and spies. So let's begin with Squadron business." He reached into the satchel and produced a datacard case which he put onto the low table ahead of him. "We've brought holographic congratulations from all those who know, including General Antilles and Janson."

The redhead gave a sigh of mock relief. "At least he hasn't sent a life-sized stuffed Ewok."

Shalla smirked. "He probably couldn't find one on such a short notice, but given time that still may happen."

Myn groaned and buried his face in his hands, his wife rolled her eyes.

"Suck it up, the two of you," Face remarked, "you are the lucky ones. He already showed up with one for Doran when Tyria was still in hospital. And don't forget you're still in his crosshairs for that prank with Kolot." He looked around. "Where is he, anyway?"

"He's off with a friend of ours who helps out with flying the shuttle while Kirney here stays home," said Myn. "You really think Janson is planning something?"

"He's always planning something." Shalla chuckled. "We're talking about Janson here, after all."

Donos heaved a sigh. "Then we better hope inspiration fails him this time."

"Optimist," Face scoffed in return. "Anyway, back to Squadron business." He reached into the satchel again and produced a datapad. "A little present from all of us, but Tyria gave us the idea. It's information on a ' _Our Baby & Us'_ holiday they took when Doran was about six months old. Tyria highly recommends it, they liked it very much. The Squadron has pooled funds and bought a voucher for you. It's valid for twelve months, so you have a bit of leeway with taking it."

Kirney accepted the datapad with trembling hands. "Thank you," she breathed and wiped a surreptitious tear from the corner of her eyes.

"You're welcome," Face returned with a smile, pleased that the present was appreciated this much. He reached yet again into the satchel and produced a folded pink cloth. "Can you guess what this is?"

Myn frowned. "Looks like a romper suit."

Loran exchanged a mischievious glance with Shalla, then unfolded the piece of cloth and held it up for them to see. Kirney choked off a laugh, Myn actually burst out laughing. It was a romper suit, but a very special one. It was pink, the standard colour for a girl, and there was an eleborate embroidery in the space over the heart depicting the comic-like figure of a friendly and smiling wraith. Above it the writing _Junior Wraith Squadron_ was emblazoned, beneath it _Member #002_.

"I hereby present you with the official Junior Wraith Squadron romper suit. It can't be purchased anywhere, we had it made specifically for your daughter." He patted the satchel. "Knowing the habits of babies we actually brought three of them so you don't need to worry about ruining it." He folded the item again and put it onto the table.

Myn picked up the folded cloth, his fingers tracing the embroidery. "This is cute," he said with a smile. "Let me guess - Doran has a set of blue ones with membership number one."

"Of course." Loran grinned broadly. "It's an exclusive club, after all. Only children of former or active Wraiths can become a member." His expression turned sly. "So, if you're looking to secure number three ..."

"No way, _poster boy_ ," Kirney interrupted him, giving Shalla a look who gracefully acquiesced and slapped the back of Face's head. "We've just got one and that's how it'll stay for a while."

"And I can live without having to prepare late-night snacks of sweet bread with bluefruit jam, mustard and gherkins," Myn remarked slyly and got a slap from his wife as well.

Face shuddered at the combination. "Okay, I get the drift." His demeanour changed to something utterly professional as if someone had flipped a switch. "There's one more thing, something inofficial, but I think you'd like to know."

Shalla nodded. "The data you sent on this narcotics smuggling operation has proved to be invaluable to Coruscant Security."

Myn leaned forward with interest sketched on his features. "We haven't had much time to scour HNE for stuff, but I can't remember any great wave of arrests."

Shalla nodded. "Because there weren't any. Cracken is playing the long game and has used the data you provided to systematically monitor those channels of illegal trade. While that didn't reveal anything spectacularly new with regards to underworld channels and players itself, it allowed CSF to connect a lot of threads, people and places, and gained insight into methods of smuggling and the associated communication channels."

"One revelation, however, was so embarrassing for the New Republic political body that even CSF was not made aware of it," Face added gravely. "One slice of the data dealt with a network of crooked low- to medium-level officials on Coruscant itself - immigration, customs, Spaceport Law Enforcement and the likes. And when NRI agents followed that particular trail of narcotics to its final customers they found themselves looking at highly placed officials of the government, armed forces, media and even some folks in close proximity to well-known celebrities."

Kirney narrowed her eyes. "What kind of officials are we talking about here?"

"Senatorial aides, ambassadorial staff, junior officers of the General and Naval Staff," he answered. "So far nobody knows if they are indeed the end users, and _that_ would point to a massive drug problem within the senatorial bureaucracy and the armed forces, or if they were playing middle men for their superiors. I honestly can't decide which option sounds worse."

Myn gave a snort. "At least it would explain some decisions they've made, like putting Fey'lya in charge of the budget committee."

"Yeah, that would explain a lot," his wife agreed with a chuckle. Looking at her friends she asked, "Can any of that be proven or are they still collecting hard evidence?"

Shalla shrugged. "Like I said, they're still looking into this. So far no big names have been implicated directly ..." She hesitated. "Except for one."

Kirney tilted her head curiously. "Who?"

Loran exchanged a glance with Shalla. "Tuovo Santorini."

Myn felt his eyes bulge and his jaw drop. "The star forward of the _Coruscant Capitals_?" he asked, refering to one of the galaxy's greatest Smashball stars.

Face nodded. "He admitted it even, though his drug scan was negative. He said it's for his younger sister who suffers from a bad case of incurable bone and joint degeneration due to a genetic fault ... and apparently that's true. The poor girl is living under constant and excrutiating pain, even the strongest legal painkillers don't show much of an effect anymore. A mild dose of Spice gets her through the day and a somewhat stronger one allows her to sleep at all."

"That's just sad," Kirney muttered. "Imagine having nearly unlimited funds at your disposal and still not being able to really help a person close to you. And then to be forced to break the law ..." She shook her head.

"Maybe the Senate will finally debate some exceptions for those patients who couldn't get any other treatment," said Shalla. "There have been a number of attempts to hammer out such legal exceptions over the years, but the fear of fueling the narcotics market had always swept those attempts aside. This time they have a very famous sports star to provide some public relations support."

"Well, in that case the Senate would finally do something for the people instead of ..." Face was interrupted by a high-pitched wail emitted by the baby com in the wall system.

"Ah," Myn remarked with a chuckle. "Looks like our little Princess has decided to cut short her forenoon nap and demand the presence of us lowly servants." He rose from the armchair, gesturing at his wife to remain seated. "I'll see what she wants and then bring her down. Get the holocam ready, Face. You've got holos to make."

 **The End**


End file.
